A  MISSION  TO  HE 


DWARD   EELLS 


-GIFT  OF 

2l 


.^1 


A  MISSION  TO  HELL 


BY 

EDWARD   EELLS 

M 

AUTHOR  OF 
«'  CHRISTLIKE  CHRISTIANITY  " 


BOSTON 
SHERMAN,  FRENCH  fef  COMPANY 

1909 


Copyright,   1909 
Sherman,  French  6>»  Company 


!- 


"  Behold,  we  know  not  anything ; 
I  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last  —  far  off  —  at  last  to  all, 
And  every  winter  change  to  spring." 

—  Tennyson. 


onA^i  o/- 


SORROW  frt  tiEAVfcN 

A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

CHAPTER  I 

I  often  wondered,  back  in  the  earthly  life,  if 
we  might  not,  at  times,  be  permitted  the  experi- 
ence of  a  kind  of  glorified  sorrow  as  a  part  of  the 
life  of  heaven.  Of  course  I  know  now.  The 
whole  problem,  as  it  looked  then,  came  back  viv- 
idly to  mind  when  I  met  the  singer,  Strong,  in 
heaven.  It  was  passing  the  middle  of  the  Twen- 
ty-first century,  as  time  is  counted  on  earth.  I 
became  conscious  of  the  neighborhood  of  a  sunny, 
expansive  smile,  and  a  strain  of  tender  longing 
came  over  my  soul  fitting  the  words,  "  Oh,  tell 
my  darling  mother,  I'll  be  there." 

"  Surely  this  must  be  Strong,"  I  thought. 

"  Hello,  Sweetheart !  "  came  the  prompt  re- 
sponse, and  we  were  soul  to  soul  in  happy  recog- 
nition, thinking  over  together  old  evangelistic 
days. 

"  Do  you  recall  a  conversation  we  had  about 
heaven,"  I  asked  him,  "  about  half -past  nine 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  eighteenth  of  No- 
vember, 1905,  down  in  Tippleton,  New  Jersey, 
you  and  I  and  Doctor  Goodwin  from  Nineveh, 
and  Brother  Weems,  my  Methodist  colleague, 
just  before  we  prayed  for  success  in  our  meetings 
that  day?" 

"  Sure !  You  said  heaven  wouldn't  be  like 
1 


2  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Christ  without  sorrow,  and  Weems  asked  you 
what  you  would  do  with  Revelation  21.4,  'And 
God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes, 
and  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow, 
nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain ; ' 
and  then  Goodwin  came  to  your  help  with  some 
Greek,  which  wasn't  fair  on  us  two  others  then, 
but  I  think  I'd  be  ready  for  him  now." 

"  He  said,  did  he  not,  that  while,  no  doubt 
there  would  be  no  7reV0os,  lamentation,  in  heaven, 
there  might  be  quiet  Aim/,  sorrow,  which  Paul 
says  may  be  godly,  and  may  have  hope,  and 
which  Jesus  often  felt,  and  once  so  deeply  that 
He  was  near  to  dying  of  it  in  the  Garden,  before 
He  came  to  Calvary." 

"  But  that  was  in  His  estate  of  humiliation," 
Brother  Strong  objected  even  now,  falling  back 
upon  his  early  teaching,  "  and  it  was  a  part  of 
His  finished  vicarious  sacrifice  and  suffering  for 
sin." 

"  And  yet  He  is  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world,"  I  ventured  to  insist.  "  He 
is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  Has 
He  not  shown  you  His  heart  which  through  all 
the  ages  has  been  aching  over  sinful  and  sad  ones, 
lost  in  many  a  world  ?  " 

"  I  was  just  remembering  how  it  struck  me  that 
morning,"  my  friend  explained.  "  Weems  and  I 
thought  that  was  about  the  wildest  notion  —  sor- 
row in  heaven  —  that  you  had  gotten  off  to  date. 
I  partly  recall  something  that  was  said  about  how 


LOOKING  THIS  WAY  3 

our  souls  would  not  be  narrower  in  heaven,  but 
broader;  and  about  how  we  wouldn't  feel  less  re- 
gret for  all  the  harm  we  might  have  done,  but 
more  regret.  I  thought  we  wouldn't  know  or 
bother  about  what  might  be  going  on  on  earth  or 
in  hell,  so  as  to  feel  sorry  about  it  all ;  but  Doctor 
Goodwin  rather  thought  we  would  still  be  most 
deeply  interested  along  that  line.  You  felt  sure 
your  father  and  mother,  along  with  the  cloud  of 
other  witnesses,  were  still  noticing  things  that 
were  happening  to  you  on  earth,  and  you  thought 
perhaps  they  were  even  more  concerned  about 
your  brother  Harry  in  hell,  if  he  really  had  gone 
there ;  only  you  couldn't  help  hoping  he  might 
have  died  in  penitence  and  faith  undeclared  at  last. 
I  said  I  was  afraid  you  were  getting  morbid ;  and 
then  you  wanted  to  know  what  I  really  felt  when 
I  sang  the  chorus  of  '  Mother's  Prayer.'  " 

At  this  point  my  companion  sang  in  soul  mel- 
ody, as  not  even  every  redeemed  spirit  can  sing  — 

"  Whene'er  I  think  of  her  so  dear, 
I  feel  her  angel  spirit  near; 
A  voice  comes  floating  on  the  air, 
Reminding  me  of  Mother's  prayer." 

"  Prester,"  he  confessed,  "  I  used  to  have  peo- 
ple crying  when  I  sang  that;  and  it  was  only  a 
tender  fancy  to  me.  But  mother  tells  me  she  has 
been  right  by  me  often  in  crowded  meetings  when 
I  was  singing  it,  while  the  air  was  thick  with 
mother  spirits  bending  over  sons  and  daughters 


4  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

there.  It  was  the  reality  that  made  them  weep." 
I  hardly  think  I  ever  knew  my  friend,  Strong, 
to  admit  being  convinced  in  a  contention,  back  on 
earth.  I  was  often  conscious  that  he  looked  upon 
me  with  compassion,  as  a  theorist.  Constitution- 
ally somewhat  of  the  sturdy  breed  of  the  great 
American  Philistine,  such  truly  wonderful  power 
of  sensibility  as  he  showed  in  singing  the  gospel 
seemed  almost  a  pure  work  of  grace.  Perceiving 
that  two  mortal  life-times  in  Paradise  had  helped 
him  somewhat,  I  ventured  now  to  ask  if  he  still 
thought  heaven  could  be  heaven  without  the  soft- 
ening influence  of  pity,  as  one  example.  "  Sweet- 
heart," he  replied,  "  I  am  more  of  a  puzzle  to 
myself  up  here  than  ever  I  was  in  the  States.  I 
begin  to  find  out  that  joy  and  sorrow  are  not  two 
opposite  things;  but  two  sides  of  what  is  often 
the  same  thing.  I  used  to  look  forward  to 
heaven  as,  in  boyhood,  I  looked  forward  to  a  trip 
to  the  city.  I  was  going  to  stride  up  the  golden 
streets  and  get  whatever  I  wanted,  see  all  the 
sights  and  do  just  as  I  pleased.  I  thought  I 
would  get  a  rest  from  bothering  with  so  many 
people.  Bless  you!  I  never  knew  what  it  was  to 
be  really  busy  till  I  got  here.  Travel?  Why, 
I  have  to  whisk  around  from  world  to  world. 
Sing?  I'm  at  it  all  the  time.  I  pray  with  peo- 
ple as  I  never  prayed  on  earth.  You  know  I  used 
to  tell  you  how  I  could  just  see  what  people  were 
thinking  here  and  there  among  my  audiences; 
but  we  never  thought  what  it  would  be  up  here; 


HEAVEN'S  STRENUOUS  LIFE         5 

to  be  in  the  conscious  interchange  of  several  thou- 
sand spirits  at  once,  and  recognize  each  one,  and 
love  each  one,  and  try  to  help  each  one  in  some 
way;  and  give,  and  give,  and  give,  getting  only 
by  giving.  Sometimes  on  earth,  on  the  closing 
night  of  a  great  series  of  meetings,  the  whole 
audience  would  swoop  down  upon  us,  and  shake 
hands  till  my  arm  ached.  But  here  we  touch  each 
other  like  a  school  of  herring,  and  every  touch  is 
a  distinct  and  different  thrill.  I  used  to  think 
our  good  easy  time  up  here  might  be  diversified 
by  welcoming  a  friend  now  and  then  at  the  pearly 
gate;  but  really  that  isn't  the  millionth  part  of 
it.  Heaven  is  no  mere  picnic  on  a  river  bank. 
Heaven  is  the  strenuous  life.  Heaven  is  the 
power  station  of  immensity.  Heaven  is  the 
world-bureau.  Heaven  is  the  eternal  market  day. 
Heaven  is  the  cosmic  exchange.  Heaven  is  the 
crowning  convention.  Heaven  is  the  university 
of  the  universe." 

"  And  you  know  you  wouldn't  take  the  same 
interest,  if  it  were  different." 

"  Well,  I  guess  not !  Why,  I  used  to  look  for- 
ward to  heaven  as  the  rest  which  follows  perfect 
accomplishment.  The  capstone  of  the  whole 
thing  would  be  put  on,  the  scaffold  cleared  away, 
and  nothing  left  but  congratulations  to  all  eter- 
nity. I  used  to  sympathize  sometimes  with  the 
hard-worked  woman  who  left  the  epitaph  to  be 
put  on  her  tombstone,  '  I'm  going  to  do  nothing 
forever  and  ever.'     But  that  was  just  physical. 


6  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Heaven  is  the  rest  remaining;  but  it  is  like  the 
rest  of  getting  well  started  —  when  you've  got 
your  horses  groomed  and  hitched  up  and  all  the 
morning  chores  attended  to,  and  you've  got 
everything  snug  in  the  wagon  and  off  you  go, 
reins  in  hand,  with  a  sharp  eye  on  the  road;  or 
when  it's  a  house  you  are  building  and  you've  got 
your  plans  and  specifications  all  worked  out,  the 
foundation  laid,  every  stick  of  the  frame  cut  — 
and  up  she  goes!  Heaven  is  rest  from  worry. 
You  don't  get  tired;  because  there  is  just  friction 
enough  to  make  things  go.  Why  heaven  is  all 
1  go.'  I  used  to  think  I  could  go  slow  in  eternity ; 
because  there  would  be  plenty  of  time  for  every- 
thing. Now  I  find  there  is  just  enough  time  and 
none  to  spare,  if  you're  going  to  keep  up." 

"  So  we  each  find  what  we  need  most,"  I  an- 
swered. "  When  I  first  came  upon  my  dear  old 
Professor  Noah  K.  in  heaven,  he  was  in  the  center 
of  a  stillness  which  seemed  to  take  in  the  universe. 
There  he  remained  with  great,  unblinking  vision 
sweeping  over  the  infinite  sea  of  thought.  *  Pres- 
ter,'  he  said,  ■  I  really  never  found  time  to  think 
at  the  University.  I  used  to  catch  half  an  idea 
now  and  then,  along  after  midnight  when  the 
others  were  quiet  in  sleep.  But  God  and  I  are 
thinking,  thinking,  thinking  now ! '  " 

"  And  I  can  just  as  truly  say,"  Brother  Strong 
rejoined,  "  that  God  and  I  are  hustling  now. 
That  is  what  makes  the  whirl  restful  and  satis- 
fying.    When  we  awake  here  in  heaven  we  are 


THE  EVANGELISTIC  PASSION         7 

satisfied  with  His  likeness.  We  are  struck  on  our 
job;  because  our  Master  works  with  us.  We 
look  into  His  face,  and  see  what  to  do  next.  It 
was  the  first  part  of  a  revival  that  used  to  tire  a 
fellow.  When  the  people  were  critical  and  sus- 
picious and  offish,  and  they  wouldn't  sing  and 
wouldn't  respond  to  anything.  But  when  we  be- 
gan to  feel  God  working  with  us  away  down  in 
their  hearts,  so  quietly,  and  the  atmosphere  of 
the  meetings  began  to  get  tense  with  surpressed 
earnestness,  and  you  could  hear  the  congregation 
remember  to  breathe  at  the  close  of  solo  or  ser- 
mon ;  when  the  fire  came  down,  and  men  that  had 
been  hard  were  kneeling  and  weeping  for  sin; 
there  was  nothing  to  tire  a  man  in  the  work.  I 
just  felt  that  I  could  sing  all  night.  It  wasn't 
me  singing,  it  was  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  angels 
were  in  the  choir.  Heaven  is  like  that,  only  more 
so." 

"  Wouldn't  you  like  to  go  back  to  earth  and  do 
more  of  it?  "  I  asked  him. 

"  Why,  I  do  hover  round  a  good  deal,"  he  re- 
plied. "  Heaven  is  splendid,  but  for  the  supreme 
thrill;  there's  nothing  quite  up  to  the  touch  of 
baby  souls  just  new  born  in  conversion.  There's 
nothing  beats  a  revival  after  all,  and  we  do  like 
to  go  and  help." 

"  But  wouldn't  you  like  to  do  evangelistic  work 
again  on  your  own  initiative,"  I  asked,  "  as  you 
did  in  the  old  mundane  sphere  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes,"  he  acknowledged,  "  I  can't  say 


8  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

I  wouldn't.  But  I  take  it  out  in  knowing  about 
the  revivals  going  on  upon  a  number  of  planets 
at  once,  and  in  putting  a  little  more  soul-melody 
into  each." 

"  Does  this  entirely  satisfy  you  ?  "  I  persisted. 

"  Why,  what  are  you  coming  at  ?  "  he  inquired 
in  almost  the  old-time  tone  of  bottomless  suspicion 
with  which  he  was  sometimes  wont  to  turn  upon 
me. 

"  I  hardly  know  whether  to  tell  you  or  not,"  I 
replied.  "  You  used  to  see  little  that  was  reason- 
able in  my  dreams.  But  I  have  to  confess  a  wist- 
fulness  that  leaves  even  heaven  incomplete.  You 
are,  no  doubt,  perfectly  happy;  because  in  all 
your  Christian  life  on  earth  you  were  doing,  I 
believe,  all  you  honestly  saw  to  do,  or  thought 
you  could  do  to  win  others  to  heaven.  But  I  look 
back  and  see  so  many  whom  I  might  have  influ- 
enced more  decidedly  to  seek  salvation,  and  I  was 
often  timid  and  hesitating  about  it;  so  they  are 
lost.  Could  you  ever  forget  if  you  had  tried  to 
save  a  drowning  man,  and  had  thrown  a  rope  al- 
most within  his  reach,  seen  him  half  clutch  at  it, 
and  yet  go  down?  I  understand  some  things 
that  were  in  men's  minds  now,  and  many  a  for- 
gotten conversation  comes  back  to  me  interlined 
with  the  unconfessed  thought  of  the  other  man. 
I  spoke  to  my  brother  once  just  as  we  were  com- 
ing through  a  tunnel  to  the  union  station  in 
Baltimore,  where  I  had  to  leave  the  train.  We 
were  on  our  way  each  to  his  home  from  our  moth- 


THE  MISSION  STILL  LACKING  9 

er's  funeral.  I  had  tried  all  the  way  from  Wash- 
ington to  get  my  poor  tongue  to  speak  to  him 
of  heaven,  while  he  would  talk  of  nothing  but 
railroads,  and  of  mechanical  details  and  appli- 
ances, as  was  his  wont,  and  when  I  broke  in  upon 
all  that  at  last  in  sheer  desperation,  and  asked 
him  abruptly  if  he  meant  to  meet  Mother  in 
heaven,  he  said  hastily,  '  Now  I  don't  want  any 
of  that.'  I  replied  weakly  that  I  didn't  wish  to 
frighten  him  away  from;  religion,  but  that  I 
longed  to  see  him  saved.  I  never  saw  him  after- 
wards, and  never  received  a  definite  reply  to  what 
I  could  find  time  to  write  to  him  on  the  theme 
that  is  worth  the  while.  Now  I  know  something 
of  what  he  was  really  thinking  all  the  way  along 
from  the  Capital  before  that,  and  it  wasn't  really 
wheels  and  switches  at  all,  but  it  was  mostly  the 
way  Mother's  face  looked  as  the  setting  sun,  out 
at  dear  old  Rock  Creek  cemetery,  sent  its  rays 
slanting  into  her  coffin  by  the  grave.  All  that 
was  needed  was  an  overmastering  love  in  my  heart 
at  that  time,  and  he  would  have  shaken  his  mind 
loose  from  mechanical  things  long  enough  to  have 
cried  to  his  mother's  God  for  mercy.  I  have 
looked  for  him  in  vain  in  heaven.  I  would  like  to 
go  and  look  for  him  in  hell." 

My  fear  was  realized.  As  I  breathed  this 
thought  into  my  friend  Strong's  soul,  he  began 
to  recede  from  me.  As  if  from  a  widening  dis- 
tance came  the  farewell,  "  Good-bye,  Sweetheart^ 
I'm  rushed  just  now:  I'll  look  you  up  again." 


10  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Then  very  faintly  came  the  echo  of  a  hymn  he 
used  to  sing  with  great  effect  about  the  judg- 
ment — 

"  And  oh  what  weeping  and  wailing 

As  the  wicked  were  told  of  their  fate ! 
They  cried  to  the  rocks  and  the  mountains, 
And     prayed  —  but     their     prayer     was     too 
late." 

One  of  the  strange  things  about  heaven  has 
been  to  have  the  thought  suddenly  occur  of  people 
we  have  missed  meeting  at  all ;  one  or  another,  per- 
haps, even  from  among  the  members  of  some  of  our 
pastorates  on  earth.  It  would  come  over  us  — 
Jeanie  and  me  —  after  decades  of  glory,  and  one 
of  us  would  exclaim,  "  How  strange  it  is  that  we 
haven't  met  that  Mrs.  So-and-so,  who  sang  solos 
with  such  heartfelt  expression  in  such  a  choir?  " 
Or  at  another  time  the  other  would  query,  "  Why 
do  you  suppose  we  have  never  come  across  Elder 
This-and-that  ?  He  was  always  so  willing  to  go 
to  Presbytery ;  it  seems  strange  not  to  find  him 
here  in  heaven's  general  assembly  and  church  of 
the  First  Born." 

These  failures  on  the  part  of  one  and  another 
expected-one  to  appear  in  heaven  often  made  me 
wonder  at  the  grace  of  God  in  my  own  salvation. 
I  could  see  little  explanation ;  except  that  it  must 
be  because  my  own  failings  had  been  so  obvious 
to  all,  that  I  had  been  compelled,  in  deference  to 
the  common  opinion,  to  put  all  my  dependence  in 


TO  FEEL  AT  HOME  IN  HEAVEN       11 

the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  no  depend- 
ence whatever  in  my  own  achievements  for  God, 
which  were  few  enough  on  the  most  liberal  reckon- 
ing. As  I  still  recall  to  mind  the  faults  in  me 
which  have  called  for  the  forgiveness  both  of  God 
and  of  my  fellow  men,  I  wonder  more  and  more 
to  find  myself  here  in  heaven  at  all;  but  I  have 
reflected  that  if  I  had  not  been  granted  entrance 
to  heaven,  I  could  never  have  had  the  wonderful 
experiences  which  I  am  about  to  narrate.  Hav- 
ing thus  been  admitted  to  Paradise  in  the  old- 
fashioned  way  by  virtue  alone  of  the  atoning 
blood  of  my  crucified  Savior,  I  find  myself  really 
very  much  more  at  home  here,  and  more  entirely 
at  my  ease  than  I  had  expected.  If  my  salvation 
and  the  ground  of  my  admittance  had  been  in  my 
own  carefully  cultivated  character,  some  of  the 
experiences  I  have  gone  through  would  probably 
have  made  me  tremble  lest  that  character  would 
crumble  away.  But  I  am  still  depending  en- 
tirely and  surely  upon  Christ,  and  when  every- 
thing else  has  seemed  to  be  rocking  to  ruin  around 
me,  I  have  found  Him  able  to  save  even  unto  the 
uttermost  of  heaven  or  hell.  I  have  been  aston- 
ished to  find  how  much  congenial  company  of 
saved  sinners  there  is  in  heaven,  while  I  have 
strangely  missed  some  very  correct  acquaintances 
I  knew  on  earth.  For  a  long,  long  time  these 
missing  ones  were  simply  not  in  our  universe. 
"  Papa,  where  is  hell  anyway  ?  "  our  middle  girl, 
herself  a  great-grandmother  now,  has  often  asked 


12  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

me.  It  seemed  so  strange,  free  as  we  were  to  search 
infinity,  that  we  never  came  upon  any  trace  of 
hell.  I  talked  this  over  once  with  David  Living- 
stone, who  is  still  exploring  for  missions  through- 
out dark  planets,  and  he  said  he  thought  it  must 
be  in  accordance  with  heaven's  law  of  nearness, 
by  which  the  souls  who  happen  to  be  thinking 
and  feeling  alike  attract  each  other,  and  those  we 
love  most  we  are  most  with.  "  Not  miles  but 
mind,  not  leagues  but  love  count  in  the  rapid 
transit  of  the  spirit  world.  No  matter  where  our 
thought  carries  us,"  Livingstone  said,  "  hell  is 
still  the  same  distance  off  from  those  who  love 
God." 

This  is  why,  with  all  our  wondering  debates, 
we  cannot  have  any  arguments  in  heaven.  When 
a  real  divergence  of  soul  transpires,  each  finds  the 
other  out  of  connection.  This  was  one  occasion 
of  frequent  prayer  while  I  was  waiting  in  heaven 
for  my  wife;  for  we  did  sometimes  have  argu- 
ments on  earth.  Jeanie  is  conservative  in  all  her 
sympathies.  She  was  intensely  sensitive  to  all 
the  narrow  opinions  of  the  dear,  contracted  souls 
around  us,  while  I  can  see  now  that  I  was  simply 
absent-minded  and  obtuse  to  much  that  seemed 
all  important  in  their  scheme  of  thought;  much 
as  they  interested  one  in  their  ways,  and  grateful 
as  I  felt  for  the  friendship  they  gave  me.  So  I 
used  to  ask  God  to  make  me  more  like  my  own 
dear  girl  by  the  time  she  came  on,  and  she  says 
she  breathed  a   similar  daily   prayer.     Thus   we 


MIGHT  IT  BE?  13 

really  grew  more  together  during  the  fourteen 
years  of  our  separation  than  during  our  wedded 
life  on  earth.  "  It's  love  that  draws  the  strong- 
est after  all ! "  Jeanie  declared  in  triumph  after 
the  first  speechless  joy  of  reunion.  We  felt  sorry 
for  some  of  the  ill-assorted  couples  of  our  mun- 
dane acquaintance  who  found  one  another  almost 
strangers  in  heaven,  while  other  soul-attractions 
filled  each  life. 

But  we  came  near  losing  each  other  once  in 
heaven  when  we  renewed  the  discussion  of  the 
parable  of  Dives  and  Lazarus.  More  than  once 
in  the  mortal  life  we  had  argued  over  it.  Jeanie 
contended  that  Lazarus  had  not  been  permitted 
to  go  to  the  help  of  Dives ;  so  I  might  as  well  give 
up,  once  and  for  all,  my  day-dreams  about  ever 
being  sent  on  a  mission  to  hell.  I  asked  her  to 
notice  that  Dives  showed  only  a  selfish  motive  in 
asking  for  Lazarus  to  be  sent  with  the  drop  of 
water  for  his  parched  tongue.  He  showed  no 
sign  of  penitence  for  his  selfish  earthly  life. 
Jeanie  thought  Dives  was  represented  as  putting 
his  request  in  an  humble  manner,  and  also  that  he 
was  showing  some  unselfish  concern  for  the  wel- 
fare of  his  brothers  left  on  earth.  I  admitted 
that  hell,  in  the  parable,  was  apparently  doing 
Dives  some  good,  and  this  beginning  of  a  change 
in  him  thrilled  me  with  a  hope  that  he  might  yet 
reach  a  state  of  mind  to  which  Lazarus  might 
profitably  be  sent,  to  tell  him  how  he  could  find 
pardon    and    redemption.     Jeanie    said    if    that 


14  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

could  happen,  it  would  prove  that  the  gulf  had 
not  really  been  fixed  after  all.  Then  I  told  her 
that  I  did  not  wish  to  harbor  in  mind  a  single 
hope  or  belief  which  was  not  well  founded  upon  a 
reverent  and  rational  interpretation  of  God's 
word,  our  supreme  rule  of  faith  and  practice, 
but  that  I  had  seen  people  in  this  world  —  housed 
in  the  same  boarding  house,  joined  as  husband 
and  wife  —  between  whom  there  was  a  gulf  fixed, 
and  neither  could  get  across.  Yet  the  gulf  might 
close  together  when  a  heart  was  changed. 

But  Jeanie  had  not  such  easy  confidence  in 
moral  transformations.  "  There  are  some  people 
so  set,  nothing  can  improve  them,"  she  would  in- 
sist. "  How  could  Elder  Smiley,  for  instance, 
ever  possibly  get  to  be  man  enough  really  to  be 
converted  and  reach  heaven?  The  book  of  Reve- 
lation says,  '  Without  are  dogs,'  and  it  mentions 
a  few  kinds  of  people  meaner  than  dogs.  What 
use  would  there  be  in  having  a  hell,  if  very  com- 
passionate, tender-hearted  people  like  you,  dear 
Boy,  were  to  be  allowed  to  go  there  and  hobnob 
with  all  sorts  of  scaly  characters  —  like  as  not 
the  Devil  himself  —  in  the  hope  of  bringing  some 
of  them  to  repentance?  Didn't  Abraham,  in  the 
parable,  positively  say  that  that  sort  of  thing 
wasn't  allowed  ?  " 

"  Perhaps  Abraham,  himself,  had  no  authority 
to  send  Lazarus,"  I  would  still  demur.  "  The 
parable  plainly  forbids  us  to  think  that  spirits 
might  be  allowed  to  pass  between  heaven  and  hell 


THE  MASTER'S  EXAMPLE  15 

on  a  merely  humanitarian  impulse.  And  cer- 
tainly if  any  unrepentant  soul  could  ever  be  con- 
ceived of  as  sneaking  out  of  hell,  even  into  heav- 
en's gladdest  center,  the  gulf  would  be  fixed  still 
—  all  around  it.  But  it  may  be  that  the  Master 
of  all,  who  Himself  went  and  preached  to  certain 
spirits  in  prison,  when  He  hastened  to  descend 
into  Hades,  after  completing  His  atonement  for 
sin  on  Calvary,  as  if  most  eager  to  offer  its  avail- 
ing power  in  hell,  where,  assuredly,  nothing  else 
could  avail  but  that  atonement ;  it  may  be  that  the 
Master,  Himself,  might  in  His  eternal,  change- 
less love  for  lost  souls  permit  some  who  feel  the 
same  eagerness,  to  carry  to  them  the  message  of 
salvation  in  Christ  for  all,  even  those  in  hell, 
whose  hearts  might  become  truly  broken  and  con- 
trite for  sin." 

"  Nathaniel,  I  am  astonished  at  you,"  Jeanie 
would  exclaim.  "  For  a  Presbyterian  to  talk  in 
that  way!  What  will  the  Presbytery  think  of 
you?"   " 

"  The  Master  knows  I  am  trying  to  be  honest 
with  the  Presbytery,"  I  would  answer.  "  There 
is  nothing  very  definite  in  the  standards  of  our 
church  in  opposition  to  a  belief  in  future  proba- 
tion, nor  is  there  in  the  Bible  either,  as  we  read  it 
more  carefully." 

Then  Jeanie  would  fall  back  upon  other  par- 
ables. "  Anyway  you  know  the  tares  must  be 
separated  from  the  wheat,"  she  would  declare  tri- 
umphantly, "  and  burned  with  unquenchable  fire. 


16  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

The  sheep  must  be  separated  from  the  goats,  and 
these  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment; 
but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal." 

"  JEonian  is  the  word  used.  It  is  the  punish- 
ment and  life  of  the  aeons,  the  ages." 

"  Is  it  the  same  word  for  both  ?  —  both  the 
sheep  and  the  goats  ?  " 

"  Yes  —  aeonian  —  which  is  not  the  strongest 
word  for  duration  in  the  Greek  tongue  either." 

"  But  it  really  means  eternal  and  everlasting 
for  the  good  people  in  heaven?  " 

"  Assuredly ;  Satan  will  never  pluck  them  out 
of  the  Savior's  hand." 

"  Then  it  must  mean  truly  everlasting  punish- 
ment for  the  bad  people  in  hell,"  she  would  rea- 
son triumphantly. 

"  We  might  think  so  in  a  narrow  literal  spirit 
of  deduction,  if  good  were  not  in  the  nature 
of  things  eternal  as  God  is  eternal;  while  it  does 
seem  that  evil  should  be,  at  the  very  worst,  in 
God's  world,  temporary,  evanescent,  ephemeral." 

"  You're  no  better  than  a  Universalist ! "  she 
exclaimed  reproachfully. 

"  I'd  like  to  think  I  might  get  to  be  almost  as 
good  as  one  or  two  of  them,"  I  replied ;  "  but 
Universalists  as  a  rule,  I  believe,  do  not  accept  the 
doctrines  of  grace  —  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins 
as  our  substitute,  and  that  we  are  justified  alone 
by  faith  in  Him,  our  Savior.  This  to  me,  as 
truly  as  it  was  to  Luther,  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
standing  or  falling  church.     It  is  the  only  key  to 


A  WOMAN  WHO  COULD  REASON       17 

the  problem  of  evil  in  God's  world,  and  the  only 
hope  of  better  things  for  lost  and  ruined  sinners 
here  and  hereafter." 

"  And  do  you  think  it  really  is  for  people  in 
hell?" 

"  If  I  could  not  humbly  dare  to  think  so,  I 
would  lose  my  reason  contemplating  the  dreadful- 
ness  of  the  alternative,"  would  be  my  answer. 
"  Our  tender  Jesus  tells  us  the  most  terrible  things 
about  hell  and  the  judgment.  But  He  also  gives 
us  incidentally,  it  seems  to  me,  many  assurances 
upon  which  we  can  build  a  hope  for  the  continued 
activity  of  redeeming  love  in  the  great  hereafter. 
He  never  says  positively  that  there  is  no  further 
probation,  but  rather  suggests  pretty  plainly  that 
there  is  a  forgiveness,  at  least  for  some  sins,  in 
the  world  to  come.  The  great  standard  parable 
gives  us  the  condition  in  which  Dives  and  Lazarus 
found  themselves  immediately  after  death.  The 
simile  of  the  sheep  and  the  goats  gives  us  the 
separation  and  doom  at  the  judgment  day. 
There  is  no  hint  just  here  of  a  possible  reprieve  in 
that  aeonian  punishment  for  those  who  may  grow 
sorry  and  truly  turn  to  God.  But  we  can  confi- 
dently fall  back  upon  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  God's  love  which  cannot  change,  of  His 
mercy  which  endureth  forever.  Our  Lord  Him- 
self tells  us  there  is  lesser  and  greater  condemna- 
tion; there  are  few  stripes  for  some,  and  many 
stripes  for  others.  So  I  cannot  think  Christ 
blames  me,  if  I  wonder  wistfully  whether  after 


18  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

preaching  His  dying  love  so  imperfectly  and  for 
such  a  little  while  and  to  so  few  people  on  earth, 
I  may  be  allowed  to  take  the  message  again  to 
some  in  hell  as  He  seems  to  have  done,  and  as 
these  who  framed  and  used  the  original  Apostles' 
Creed  must  all  have  believed  He  did,  or  they 
would  not  in  the  creed  have  put  '  hell '  so  plainly 
into  antithesis  with  '  heaven.'  I  wTould  like,  if  it 
were  God's  will,  to  tell  the  story  of  redeeming  love 
to  some  earnest-minded  heathen  who  has  died 
without  ever  having  known  Christ.  I  would  like 
to  tell  it  to  some  pious  Jew  who  has  died  hating 
the  name  of  Christ,  because  of  the  persecutions 
by  Christians.  I  would  like  to  tell  it  to  some  of 
the  poorer  people  we  could  never  get  to  attend 
church,  and  to  some  of  the  poor  fellows  who  died 
of  drink,  and  to  others  who  have  been  so  preju- 
diced, they  really  never  have  known  how  to  be 
saved.  I  think  I  would  like  to  try  the  Gospel 
again  on  the  wickedest  man  we  have  known." 

"  That's  Elder  Rorer,"  my  wife  would  inter- 
rupt. 

"  Yes,  I'd  like  to  find  poor  Rorer  in  hell  and 
say  to  him,  if  I  might,  '  Rorer,  God  still  loves 
you.  It  is  still  true  that  Jesus  died  for  you.' 
I'd  like  to  see  how  he  would  take  it,  after  learning 
some  of  the  lessons  of  perdition." 

"  He  would  just  try  to  do  you  some  terrible 
harm,"  Jeanie  would  say  with  a  shudder. 

But  when  we  were  together  again  in  heaven, 
there  came  a  time  when  my  precious  girl  said  very 


A  WISH  NOT  OUTGROWN  19 

wistfully,  "  Dear  Boy,  when  I  look  on  your  soul, 
it  is  all  clear  to  my  sight,  but  one  little  spot  which 
is  so  bright  that  it  is  dark  to  me.  You  are  not 
telling  me  all  you  think." 

I  replied  that  I  hesitated  to  grieve  her  with  the 
old  subject;  which  was  once  only  a  fancy,  but  in 
heaven  it  had  grown  to  be  the  very  wistfulness  of 
existence. 

"  You  mean  you  still  wish  to  go  on  a  mission  to 
hell?  "  she  asked  me  anxiously. 

"  I  ask  God  to  take  the  wish  away,  if  it  is 
wrong,"  I  answered. 

"  I  wonder  why  you  cannot  be  perfectly 
happy,"  she  said,  "  here  in  heaven  with  me  and 
Mother  and  Father  and  our  glorified  baby  twins, 
and  all  our  children  and  grandchildren  and  all 
these  millions  of  lovely  people." 

It  was  then  that  we  slipped  out  of  touch  for 
one  of  those  half-hour  spaces  in  heaven.  It  was 
mainly  my  fault,  I  fear ;  I  should  have  become  by 
this  time  more  alive  to  the  finer  feelings  of  her 
sex.  I  only  perceived  that  she  was  not  interested, 
and  so  fell  to  musing.  Just  then  there  came  a 
wave  of  soft  influence  through  heaven,  informing 
those  who  cared  to  know  that  America  had  gone 
Imperialist.  It  did  not  occur  to  me  at  the  moment 
that  politics  would  appeal  to  her,  and  I  found 
myself  drawn  to  a  group  of  some  hundred  mil- 
lions who  immediately  closed  in  for  a  talk  with 
Grover  Cleveland  and  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the 
men  whose  strong  administrations  had  so  much  to 


20  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

do  with  turning  the  current  of  national  life  to- 
ward this  desirable  consummation. 

There  was  one  occasion  during  our  earthly  ex- 
istence when  I  had  the  misfortune  actually  to 
forget  my  wife.  We  were  on  our  way  to  a  party. 
I  left  her  standing  on  a  quiet  street  of  Church- 
ville  just  for  a  moment,  while  I  stepped  across  to 
the  house  of  a  neighbor  on  a  corner.  They 
bowed  me  out  by  a  side  door,  and  I  went  on  down 
that  street  to  the  post-office.  There  I  found  a 
number  of  friends  to  be  interested  in  while  the 
mail  was  being  sorted,  and  getting  a  letter  which 
required  an  answer  by  the  morning  mail,  I  went 
half  way  home.  Then  the  thought  of  home's 
cheery  welcome  recalled  me  by  association  to  my 
own  sweet  girl  left  upon  the  sidewalk.  You  may 
be  sure  I  did  not  find  her  there,  and  I  had  to  face 
a  houseful  of  guests  at  my  friend's  party,  greatly 
amused  with  the  story  of  my  young  wife's  bewil- 
derment when  I  did  not  return  to  her  side. 

On  the  occasion  of  this  second  mental  lapse 
(which  occurred  in  heaven)  we  were  looking, 
while  Cleveland  and  Roosevelt  talked,  down  upon 
the  splendid  empire  of  the  two  American  conti- 
nents over  which  the  new  people's  king  was  to 
reign,  so  long  as  his  sovereignty  should  be  for  the 
welfare  of  the  nation ;  and  I  was  drawn  to  con- 
trast this  varied  realm  of  twelve  hundred  million 
inhabitants,  with  the  part  of  God's  whole  great 
kingdom  known  to  me  as  yet.  I  remembered  how, 
in  student  days,  I  had  sometimes  practiced  giving 


THE  COSMIC  OUTLOOK  21 

one  comprehensive  glance  over  an  extended  land- 
scape, then  closing  my  eyes  to  see  how  many  of 
its  features  had  been  thus  photographed  upon  my 
memory.  So  now  I  thought  I  would  let  rays 
from  the  whole  sphere  of  cognizance  stream  into 
my  soul  at  once;  I  distinctly  noticed  the  solar 
system  with  which  I  was  most  familiar,  Sirius 
and  his  planets  bathed  in  ruby  light,  certain  twin 
suns  of  varied  colors  whose  worlds  knew  no  night, 
only  marvelously  blended  changes  of  sunrise  and 
sunset,  half  daylight  of  crimson,  half  daylight 
of  blue,  mingling  into  complete  double  sunlight  of 
purple.  I  peered  into  iridescent  depths  of  flam- 
ing orbs  and  whirling  nebulae;  I  caught  the  glit- 
ter from  glaciers  of  dead  worlds  and  searched  the 
gloom  of  their  center-deep  volcanic  caves.  I  rev- 
elled in  the  near  vision  of  unspeakable  glories 
along  the  Milky  Way.  My  soul  was  filled  to 
overflowing  with  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of 
God's  universe.  Some  of  its  infinitely  varied 
forms  of  physical  and  spirit  life  were  revealed  to 
my  glance;  gigantic  Martians,  Jupiter's  fire- 
dwellers,  great  aether  insects,  strangest  blendings 
of  soul  and  body.  I  caught  the  reach  of  the 
world's  fourth  dimension,  long  known  to  mathe- 
matics, inconceivable  to  sense,  stretching  out  to 
the  infinity  of  purely  spiritual  existence.  I  felt 
the  myriad  kiss  of  heaven's  companionship  of 
souls,  and  heard  the  sweep  of  its  seventy  octave 
symphony  of  rapture.  My  baby  spirit,  strain- 
ing to  its  utmost  capacity  to  take  in  this  tiny 


22  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

fraction  of  the  infinite  reality  of  things,  nestled 
closer  still  to  God  at  that  moment.  "  Thou  art 
all,  and  in  all,  and  yet  beyond  all,"  my  heart 
whispered ;  "  but  Thou  art  only  the  same  crucified 
Jesus,  who  hast  died  for  me !  " 

And  then  the  thought  came  over  me  with  sud- 
den longing,  "  even  hell  is  a  part  of  Thy  being." 

"  The  Lord  of  all  Himself  through  all  diffused, 
Sustains  and  is  the  life  of  all  that  lives." 

My  heart  went  out  to  this  great  terrible,  un- 
known dependency  of  God.  I  knew  in  that  mo- 
ment that  what  I  felt  was  just  a  little  bit  of 
Christ's  own  longing  over  lost  souls.  I  seemed  to 
be  just  beginning  to  live.  Eagerly  I  strained 
my  gaze  toward  the  horizon  of  the  universe.  I 
was  ready  at  once  to  fly  to  hell.  Faces  from  the 
past  crowded  upon  my  memory.  Several  were 
suicides.  Others  had  died  suddenly,  unrepentant. 
Some  were  honest  doubters  apparently  to  the  last 
of  their  earthly  life.  I  thought  of  the  untold 
millions  whom  I  had  never  known,  bred  in  sin, 
living  in  darkness,  dying  in  despair  —  cut  off  in 
the  rage  and  terror  of  battle  with  curses  on  their 
lips  —  dying  in  dependence  upon  human  absolu- 
tion, upon  pagan  rites.  Oh,  if  I  could  help  save 
some  of  them  yet !  Then  God  answered  my  heart 
more  plainly  than  in  all  my  life  of  faith  and 
prayer;  and  I  knew  that  just  as  soon  as  I  was 
quite  ready  for  the  trust,  I  would  be  led  out  upon 
its  mission.     I  knew  now  that  the  desire  to  visit 


THE  COMMISSION  23 

hell  on  this  saving  mission  was  a  work  of  God's 
Holy  Spirit  in  my  heart,  that  it  was  in  perfect 
harmony  with  Christ's  eternal  longing  to  save, 
and  that  others  were  being  prepared  for  the  same 
endeavor.  It  was  as  though  many  unseen  hands 
touched  mine  in  comradeship.  A  new  kind  of 
friendship  came  into  my  soul's  life  just  then, 
changing  the  light  of  heaven.  Here  we  know 
whenever  people  are  loving  us  often  without 
knowing  who  they  are.  The  first  touch  of  souls 
who  were  to  be  peculiarly  united  through  eternity 
thrilled  through  and  through  me  during  those  mo- 
ments; and  then  the  thought  of  the  dear  old  ties 
came  almost  like  a  temptation.  Would  they  be 
weakened,  lessened  now?  Instantly  I  came  back 
to  the  half-hour  before  and  exclaimed  to  myself, 
"  Why,  what  have  I  done  with  my  wife?  "  Then 
I  felt  something  pulling.  At  first  it  was  like  a 
cobweb;  then  as  I  yielded  to  its  pull  it  was  like  a 
fine  thread,  a  silken  cord,  miles  and  miles  of  it. 
Then  I  realized  that  she  was  wishing  for  me,  that 
her  heart  was  calling  me,  that,  for  some  reason, 
she  was  almost  in  trouble.  And  when  we  found 
each  other,  her  soul  had  turned  pale.  "  If  you 
will  promise  never  to  do  like  that  again,"  she  said, 
"  I  am  willing  to  go  with  you  myself  on  your  wild 
goose  chase  to  hell." 


A  MISSION  TO  HELL 


CHAPTER  II 

After  that  the  secret  was  out  in  the  family,  and 
we  had  some  truly  tall  talks,  sitting  together  in 
heavenly  places.  Father  said  one  thing  had  com- 
posed his  mind  to  a  certainty  that  there  could  be 
small  truth  in  the  "  larger  hope  "  of  future  pro- 
bation ;  namely,  the  inexpediency  of  preaching  it. 
He  quoted  the  preamble  to  our  Presbyterian 
Form  of  Government,  Article  IV,  which  declares 
that  "  Truth  is  in  order  to  goodness,  and  the 
great  touchstone  of  truth  is  its  tendency  to  pro- 
mote holiness."  And  our  Savior's  dictum,  with 
regard  to  men,  he  thought,  would  apply  equally 
to  doctrines  — "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them."  Men,  at  the  best,  were  altogether  too 
prone  to  postpone  their  day  of  repentance;  and 
when  we  removed  from  them  the  fear  of  death  as 
the  fixed  and  unalterable  boundary  line  of  the 
soul's  probation,  beyond  which  there  could  be  no 
space  found  for  repentance,  though  we  might  seek 
it  carefully  and  with  tears;  we  greatly  reduced 
the  probabilities  of  repentance  at  any  time  during 
the  mortal  life.  "  '  Because  sentence  against  an 
evil  work  is  not  executed  speedily,'  "  he  quoted, 
"  '  therefore  the  heart  of  the  sons  of  men  is  fully 
set  in  them  to  do  evil.'  Accord  to  fallen  human 
nature  even  the  glimmer  of  a  hope  that  it  may 
pass  out  of  the  earthly  existence  unreconciled  to 
God,  yet  meet  an  opportunity  somewhere  beyond 


WILL  THE  DOCTRINE  WORK?        25 

in  eternity,  embracing  which  it  may  patch  up 
some  sort  of  tardy  compromise  and  achieve  heaven 
at  last;  you  will  then  labor  all  but  in  vain  to  se- 
cure conversions  here.  Men  will  venture  upon 
the  risk  of  losing  somewhat  of  heaven's  first  joy, 
trusting  that  their  delay  may  not  prove  entirely 
fatal,  but  that  God  will  stand  in  unchanged  com- 
plaisance ready  to  forgive  them  when  they  are 
ready  to  be  forgiven.  Such  a  doctrine  cannot  be 
true ;  because  it  cannot  be  helpfully  preached." 

What  could  I  say  but  that  I  thought  so  too? 
For  the  people  who  are  putting  off  repentance  in 
the  hope  of  extended  probation,  there  can  be  but 
one  scriptural  and  rational  answer.  But  why 
give  them  a  false  hope  that  they  may  wait  to 
repent  at  any  time  before  they  pass  the  uncertain, 
accidental  boundary  line  of  physical  death? 
Does  not  this  reduce  the  whole  matter  of  a  sin- 
ner's relations  with  his  wronged  and  slighted  God 
to  an  exciting  game  of  chance,  with  the  fun  all 
on  the  side  of  dallying  with  life's  opportunity  of 
reconciliation?  Why  not  say  firmly  and  posi- 
tively, "  Now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the 
day  of  salvation."  "  To-day  if  ye  will  hear  His 
voice,  harden  not  your  hearts  ?  "  Why  extend 
even  for  a  moment  the  term  of  probation  to  a 
hesitating,  scheming,  stock- jobbing  type  of  de- 
layed repentance,  which  aims  to  drive  the  sharpest 
bargain  possible  with  God's  indulgence  to  a  soul 
that  would  dearly  like  to  sin  a  while  longer,  and 
then  be  sweetly  saved  just  a  little  while  before 


£6  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

death  comes?  Is  it  enough  to  warn  such  people 
of  the  uncertainty  of  the  mortal  life?  What 
warrant  have  we  for  giving  that  kind  any  hope 
at  all  in  God's  continued  mercy?  Why  not  say 
frankly :  "  I  fear  you  haven't  soul  enough  to 
be  saved  anyway  ?  The  appearances  are  that  you 
are  already  hopelessly  reprobate  and  incapable  of 
genuine  repentance.  Not  on  the  prolongation 
of  your  uncertain  mortal  life,  but  upon  this  brief 
present  moment  hangs  the  only  hope  for  aeons  be- 
fore you.  By  bare  possibility  it  may  not  yet  be 
quite  too  late  for  your  shrivelling  soul  to  cry  to 
God  for  grace  to  be  ashamed  before  Him." 
Why  should  we,  on  the  authority  of  a  few  scat- 
tered allusions  in  God's  Word,  possibly  over-em- 
phasized, become  quite  positive  that  physical 
death,  which  from  a  moral  point  of  view  is  only  an 
accident,  must  invariably  terminate  moral  proba- 
tion ;  while  we  make  little  of  the  altogether  scien- 
tific and  tremendously  scriptural  fact  of  soul  death 
in  either  world  as  the  natural  boundary  line  of  a 
soul's  probation?  Surely,  our  religion  should  be 
the  perfection  of  common  sense. 

"  Father,"  I  answered,  that  time  in  heaven,  "  I 
am  reminded  of  two  hymns  sung  occasionally  in 
your  meetings  during  my  boyhood,  the  first  of 
which  I  could  only  wonder  about,  even  as  a  child ; 
while  the  second  has  often  appealed  to  me  with 
greater  emphasis,  perhaps,  than  the  author  ever 
intended. 


THE  REAL  BOUNDARY  27 

"  While  life  prolongs  its  precious  light 
Mercy  is  found  and  peace  is  given; 
But  soon,  ah!  soon,  approaching  night 
Shall  blot  out  every  hope  of  Heaven." 

That  was  the  one  I  found  it  hard  to  believe,  and 
this  was  the  other: 

"  There  is  a  time  we  know  not  when, 
A  point  we  know  not  where, 
That  marks  the  destiny  of  men 
To  glory  or  despair. 

"  To  pass  that  limit  is  to  die  — 
To  die  as  if  by  stealth; 
It  does  not  quench  the  beaming  eye 
Nor  pale  the  glow  of  health." 

We  have  to  be  careful  how  we  think  of  people 
in  heaven ;  for  if  we  become  too  sympathetic  in 
thought  with  them  at  a  given  moment  they  are  apt 
to  turn  up.  But  we  were  glad  to  welcome  to  our 
conversation  the  shy  polyglot  of  Princeton  and 
of  heaven,  my  father's  instructor  in  the  forties, 
Joseph  Addison  Alexander. 

"  You  were  quoting  my  hymn,"  he  said.  "  and 
naturally  I  am  interested." 

I  told  him  I  had  often  wondered  if  he  had  ever 
though  of  that  limit  of  probation,  that 

"  hidden  boundary  between 
God's  patience  and  His  wrath." 


28  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

as  lying,  in  the  experience  of  some  reprobate  souls 
somewhere  beyond  the  uncertain  boundary  line  of 
the  mortal  life. 

Alexander's  answering  smile  was  like  the  glimpse 
of  some  vast  landscape  through  parting  clouds 
from  a  mountain's  top.  "  Do  you  know,"  he  ac- 
knowledged, "  I  used  often  to  long  for  heaven's 
wider  knowledge  during  earth's  brief  study  hour; 
but  since  I  came  here  I  hardly  feel  so  sure  about 
a  number  of  things  as  I  felt  down  in  the  old  dear, 
dogmatic  Princeton.  If  there  are  souls  somewhere 
so  dead  that  Christ's  mighty  word  cannot  speak 
them  back  to  life,  it  would  seem  almost  better  if 
in  God's  justice  and  His  mercy  they  could  finally 
and  forever  cease  to  be.  But  even  such  an  end 
would  introduce  an  element  of  failure  into  God's 
world,  which,  by  His  very  nature,  should  culminate 
in  entire  success.  Who  knows  how  many  birth 
throes  of  souls  becoming  alive  from  the  dead  out 
of  the  womb  of  hell's  anguish  may  be  hidden  from 
our  eyes  by  this  mystery  of  separateness  which 
baffles  all  our  learning  ?  " 

I  told  him  how  Father  had  just  been  laboring 
to  convince  me  that  there  could  be  no  work  of  re- 
generation in  hell,  on  the  simple  ground  that  the 
effect  of  preaching  such  a  possibility  of  future 
salvation  would  have  led  men  to  postpone  repent- 
ance." "  I  have  to  admit,"  I  said,  "  that  the 
worst  man,  perhaps,  I  ever  knew,  Rorer  by  name, 
claimed  to  be  a  believer  in  a  doctrine  they  called 
the  '  Millennial  Dawn,'  which  included  a  belief  in 


A  NEGLECTED  THEME  29 

the  final  restoration  of  all  things.  I  am  sure,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  great  deal  of  good  has  been  ac- 
complished by  the  singing  of  your  solemn  hymn. 
And  would  God  have  blessed  it,  if  it  had  not  been 
quite  true  ?  " 

"  I  could  only  wish  that  we  had  sung  it 
oftener,"  Father  said.  "  We  quoted  and  cited  it 
often  from  the  pulpit,  but  our  people  for  some 
reason  seemed  to  find  it  hard  to  sing." 

"  In  my  generation,  it  was  not  even  quoted 
often,"  I  admitted  reluctantly.  "  Reprobation, 
Hell,  the  Judgement  were  not  the  usual  themes  of 
pulpit  discourse.  '  Brimstone  corners '  were 
hardly  found  any  more  among  all  our  churches. 
Our  preachers  did  not  warn  men  much  to  flee  from 
the  wrath  to  come.  They  only  strove  to  attract. 
And  they  confined  their  preaching  largely  to  mat- 
ters of  this  life.  Doctor  Hitchcock  launched  us 
from  the  Seminary  with  the  advice  that  it  was, 
perhaps,  a  weakness  in  any  religion  to  emphasize 
eschatology." 

"  I  wonder  what  he  thinks  about  that  now  ?  " 
Father  suggested,  with  his  own  playful,  sweetly 
reasonable  smile,  only  glorified. 

"  I  think  now  that  '  eschatology  ' —  thought 
about  the  last  things  —  is  nearly  all,"  replied  the 
incisive  professor,  joining  us  as  we  might  have  ex- 
pected. "  If  I  were  on  earth  again  to  preach  and 
teach,  the  burden  of  the  message  I  would  give  and 
commend  to  others  would  be  Eternity,  eter- 
nity!    The    great,    unsupplied    need    of    your 


30  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

generation,  Prester  Junior,  was  a  credible, 
preachable  eschatology.  The  minds  of  your  con- 
temporaries had  recoiled  from  the  awfulness  of 
an  eternal,  hopeless  state  of  punishment  for  nine- 
tenths  of  the  men  and  women  and  children  that 
ever  had  been  born.  When  you  tried  to  preach  it, 
the  words  stuck  in  your  throat.  The  only  alter- 
natives of  belief  to  be  presented  were  the  proba- 
tion after  death,  or  salvation  by  works,  by  the 
light  of  nature,  without  any  true  faith  in  God's 
mercy  secured  by  Jesus  Christ.  Joseph  Cook 
claimed  that  in  conscience  was  the  essential  Christ. 
But  conscience  could  not  present  Christ  the  Sav- 
iour, only  Christ  the  Judge.  Before  the  bar  of 
his  own  conscience  the  most  unenlightened  of  men 
honestly  stands  condemned.  Dante's  inscription 
over  the  gateway  of  hell  applies  to  every  one: 
'  Ye  knew  your  duty,  but  ye  did  it  not ! '  " 

The  big  brained  man  of  Boston  himself  gave  his 
assent,  coming  to  us  in  response  to  our  thought  of 
him  at  that  moment.  "  I  practically  said  the  same 
thing  one  Monday,"  he  claimed.  "  I  declared  in 
effect  that  every  man,  always,  everywhere,  in- 
fallibly knows  in  every  course  of  action  whether  he 
means  to  do  right  or  means  to  do  wrong.  I  said 
a  great  many  things  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  dur- 
ing the  mortal  life;  but  I  still  hold  that  in  con- 
science was  the  essential  Christ ;  because  the  con- 
demning conscience  drove  men  to  cry  to  God  for 
mercy,  in  one  groping  way  or  another;  and 
through  the  merit  of  the  unknown  Christ,  that 


A  BUNCH  OF  BRIGHT  SOULS       31 

true  heart-cry,  '  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner ! ' 
always  sent  the  petitioner  down  to  his  house  justi- 
fied. Always,  everywhere,  he  that  calleth  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved.  And  it  does 
not  matter  so  much  whether  he  calls  God  Jehovah, 
Allah,  Vishnu,  Great  Spirit,  or  what  not,  so  he 
calls  in  honest  repentance  for  God's  forgiveness.'5 

"  How  shall  they  call  upon  Him  of  whom  they 
have  not  heard? "  Alexander  quoted.  "  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  how  many  heathen  have  we  met  in 
heaven,  saved  without  a  knowledge  of  Christ  ?  " 

"  Dear  Professor,"  Father  said,  "  I  fear  you 
must  be  still  something  of  a  recluse.  I  have  met 
numbers  of  pious  Jews,  who  never  experienced 
aught  on  earth  but  a  grieved  spirit  of  prejudice 
against  the  Christ  whose  professed  followers  had 
persecuted  them.  But  they  had  often  prayed 
after  David,  t  Wash  me  thoroughly  from  mine  in- 
iquity, and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin  ?  '  I  have  not 
asked  them  how  they  came  to  know  Him,  but  in- 
deed, they  are  the  ones  who  seem  to  love  Christ 
most  in  heaven." 

"  I  never  could  quite  come  in  touch  with  a 
Jew,"  Hitchcock  admitted.  "  I  could  always  see 
snakes  in  their  eyes.  But  I  rather  like  the  Jew 
of  history,  and  I've  found  several  of  them  here  to 
tell  me  about  mediaeval  events  that  once  puzzled 
me.  We  were  so  much  occupied  over  the  secret 
springs  in  the  bed  of  the  current  of  history  that 
I  never  thought  to  ask  them  how  they  came  here." 

"  There    are    a    great    many    more    people    in 


32  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

heaven  than  we  have  yet  met,"  Cook  declared.  "  I 
had  the  pleasure,  not  long  ago,  of  a  talk  with 
Plato,  Socrates,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Seneca.  I 
was  wondering  about  them  and  longing  to  know 
them,  when  they  all  came  at  once.  Let  us  wish 
for  them  awhile,  in  hopes  they  may  not  be  other- 
wise engaged." 

Surely  enough,  presently  they  were  with  us, 
and  also  Mozoomdar,  one  of  Joseph's  old-time 
Hindoo  cronies.  Our  spokesman  addressed  the 
Father  of  Philosophy  first.  "  Tell  us,  Socrates," 
he  said,  "  when,  before  drinking  the  hemlock,  you 
ordered  a  cock  sacrificed  to  JEsculapius,  did  you 
entertain  any  idea  of  a  sin  atonement;  did  you 
think  of  yourself  as  needing  God's  mercy  ?  " 

Socrates  responded  hesitatingly,  "  I  hardly 
know  what  moved  me  at  that  moment.  I  know 
now  that  I  was  all  my  life  groping  after  Christ, 
the  living  Logos,  the  Idea,  the  expression  of  God. 
But  I  found  that  I  had  to  find  Christ  himself, 
before  I  found  heaven." 

"  So  it  was  with  me,"  exclaimed  Aurelius. 
"  Immediately  after  death  I  saw  a  great  light,  and 
heard  His  voice,  saying  to  me  as  to  Saul  of  Tar- 
sus, *  I  am  Jesus,  whom  thou  persecutest.'  I  came 
into  heaven  as  a  chief  of  sinners  infinitely  for- 
given only  through  the  merits  of  the  Crucified  One, 
whom  I  had  persecuted  ignorantly  through  un- 
belief." 

Mozoomdar  had  a  similar  experience  to  relate. 
"  The  terrible  fact  about  our  Hindooism,  no  mat- 


CONVERSION  AFTER  DEATH         33 

ter  how  much  clarified,"  he  admitted,  "  was  its 
denial  of  God's  unity  in  love.  The  vast  number 
of  us  died  unreconciled  to  the  true  God,  when  all 
we  needed  was  the  gospel  to  help  us  know  Him. 
The  awful  crime  of  prosperous,  well-informed 
Christian  people,  on  account  of  which  untold  mil- 
lions of  my  race  are  wandering  in  hell's  outer 
darkness  still,  was  the  withholding  of  the  gospel. 
We  got  a  wrong  start  in  childhood  on  earth,  and 
many  of  us  are  going  wrong  still.  I  know;  be- 
cause I  have  seen." 

We  listened  with  intense  interest  to  these  tesi- 
monies  of  men  who  had  been  seekers  after  God  all 
their  mortal  lives,  and  had  found  Him  in  Christ 
after  death.  As  we  reasoned  thus  together,  spirits 
interested  in  our  subject  of  conversation  gathered 
one  by  one  about  us.  There  were  those  who  had 
been  Hindoos,  Thibetans,  Manchurians,  Siamese, 
Malays,  Turks,  Persians,  Jews,  Shintoists,  Fet- 
ishists, and  even  American  Mental  Scientists. 
These  were  all  testifying  that  they  only  needed 
to  come  to  know  Christ  aright  in  either  life,  and 
they  had  irresistibly  been  drawn  to  put  their 
whole  trust  in  Him.  There  was  no  din :  each  was 
perfectly  distinct  in  utterance ;  yet  it  all  came  up- 
on us  as  a  mass  of  testimony  that  was  overwhelm- 
ing. "  How  strange,"  exclaimed  Addison  Alex- 
ander, "  that  we  have  been  living  along  beside  all 
these  people  in  heaven;  some  of  them  treasuring 
the  most  wonderful  stories  to  tell ;  and  have  allowed 
ourselves  to  become  absorbed  in  language  study, 


34  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

in  abstruse  questions  of  theology,  in  historical  re- 
search; when  we  might  worthily  have  been  inter- 
esting ourselves  in  all  these  new-born  souls." 

"  Is  not  this  what  the  life  of  heaven  needs," 
questioned  Joseph  Cook,  "  to  save  it  from  a  certain 
aimlessness  after  all  ?  " 

"  I  think  we  serve  our  Master  best  even  by 
following  the  bent  He  gives  us,"  Father  counseled. 
"  We  can  live  for  each  other  in  many  thousand 
ways.  And  all  the  stores  of  wisdom  and  of 
knowledge  we  have  gained  can  be  made  useful  in 
perfecting  other  souls.  Certainly  we  have  wit- 
nessed to-day  that  which  will  make  us  more  eager 
and  hopeful  by  far  in  the  work  of  saving  im- 
mortal souls,  in  whatsoever  part  of  His  great 
vineyard  the  Master  may  elect  to  place  us." 

"  But  oh  how  much  more  hopeful  and  eager 
we  would  have  been  in  saving  men  on  earth,"  I  ex- 
claimed, "  if  we  could  have  looked  forward  to  what 
we  have  learned  to-day!  If  we  could  only  have 
believed  that  the  meager  results  we  were  achieving 
were  just  the  little  gleanings  in  a  great  harvest 
field  extending  across  both  worlds,  and  just  the 
first  fruits  of  a  mighty  ingathering  which  would 
extend  out  into  eternity !  " 

"  That  reminds  me  of  what  I  was  saying  when 
our  Boston  friend  was  drawn  to  us,"  Doctor  Hitch- 
cock suggested.  "  That  the  great  unsupplied 
need  of  your  generation  was  a  credible,  preach- 
able  eschatology.  Not  only  to  nerve  our  own 
hearts  for  what  often  seemed  a  losing  battle;  but 


SWEET  REASONABLENESS  35 

also  to  present  the  real  issues  of  eternity,  the  real 
gain  of  immediate  and  hearty  repentance,  the  real 
terrors  of  outraged  law,  the  awful  risk  of  stifling 
conscience,  the  ages  of  living  which  may  be  lost 
in  hardness  of  heart,  in  rebellion  against  omnipo- 
tence, and  in  bitter,  needless  repining,  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  single  wilful  choice;  when  we  might  as 
well  have  been  happy  in  God's  love  all  that  lost 
time;  the  eternity  of  regret  which  must  shadow 
our  heaven  at  last,  after  a  life  of  obdurate  con- 
tinuance in  sin ;  the  ten-fold  harder  task  of  repent- 
ance and  undoing;  the  cruelty  of  delaying 
love's  glad  consummation.  A  shorter  hell,  per- 
haps, but  really  a  hotter." 

"  Was  not  this  the  thing  most  needful,"  asked 
Socrates,  who  had  lingered  with  us,  "  for  men  to 
learn  to  know  that  to  be  out  of  connection  with 
the  Deity  in  spirit  is  to  be  already  now  beforehand 
in  the  purlieus  of  hell  ?  " 

"  And  the  hell  will  be  just  as  aeonian  as  the 
separation  of  spirit,"  Joseph  Cook  murmured; 
"  no  matter  how  much  glamour  Satan  may  con- 
trive to  throw  around  it." 

"  And  may  we  not  think,"  suggested  Alexander, 
"  that  to  some  of  the  lost  spirits  in  hell,  their 
torment,  in  comparison  with  the  brevity  of  the 
mortal  life  on  earth,  may  already  have  been  fairly 
aeonian?  Eternity  has  its  depth  as  well  as  its 
length.  How  long  was  an  hour  when  you  suffered 
with  toothache?  " 

"  The  most  obdurate  timidity  of  the  theologian 


36  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

from  age  to  age,"  Hitchcock  reflected,  "  has  been 
the  fear  of  not  sufficiently  limiting  the  love  and 
mercy  of  our  God.  To  the  mediaeval  mind  it  was 
inconceivable  that  the  atonement  of  our  Lord  could 
avail  for  the  instant  pardon  of  the  sinner  without 
much  penance,  frequent  intercession  of  saints  and 
Virgin,  and  ages  of  Purgatory  besides.  I  wonder 
if  we  doctors  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  may  not 
have  unconsciously  experienced  a  touch  of  the 
same  ague  of  an  over  anxious  orthodoxy,  as  we 
stood  shivering  on  the  brink  of  the  full  concep- 
tion that  '  His  mercy  endureth  forever.'  " 

But  Father  protested.  "  I  cannot  say  that  I 
altogether  like  your  metaphor,  Doctor,"  he  said. 
"  I  consider  that  it  was  a  sound  and  healthy 
hesitancy  which  we  felt  to  let  down  the  bars  our 
Master  Himself  had  put  up.  We  must  be  true 
to  His  word." 

"  To  His  whole  word  in  its  whole  spirit, 
Brother,"  Mozoomdar  protested  very  gently. 
"  Not  merely  to  the  apparent  side  teaching  of  one 
or  two  parables ;  but  to  the  mighty  unity  of  pur- 
pose in  the  Scriptures  to  set  forth  Christ's  work 
of  redemption  as  the  one  great  universal,  eternal, 
all-compensating,  all-explaining  movement  run- 
ning through  and  through  the  evanescent  ages  of 
sin  and  sorrow.  Can  He  who  crowned  his  earthly 
life  work  by  that  instant  answer  to  the  penitent 
murderer,  *  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
Paradise,'  whose  spirit  hastened  from  the  lifeless 
body  left  hanging  upon  the  cross  in  order  that  it 


THE  INEVITABLE  RESOLVE         37 

might  go  and  preach  a  finished  atonement  and  an 
achieved  salvation  to  spirits  in  hell's  prison;  can 
He  who  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever, 
with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of 
turning,  ever  fail  to  be  everywhere  the  world's  Re- 
deemer, still  going  about  doing  good,  still  come 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost?  " 

A  silence  fell  upon  us  with  this  uttered  thought. 
To  me  it  was  like  the  flush  of  a  more  glorious 
dawn  spreading  over  heaven's  noon-day  sky.  It 
was  Addison  Alexander  who  spoke  at  last. 
"  God's  word  has  always  shown  itself  possessed  of 
more  and  greater  dimensions  than  man's  reason," 
he  said.  "  Just  as  we  have  held  to  the  thought- 
transcending  fact  of  the  Trinity,  and  to  the  seem- 
ing contradictions  of  God's  sovereignty  and  man's 
free  will;  so  may  we  not  in  wisdom  humbly  hold 
both  to  eternal  punishment  and  to  eternal  proba- 
tion, into  these  things,  like  the  angels,  desiring  to 
look,  and  striving  in  our  keenest  analysis,  in  our 
widest  grasp  of  thought,  at  least  to  know  why  we 
may  not  fully  know  the  complete  unity  of  truth?  " 

Then,  like  Elihu,  the  Buzite,  I  could  hold  in  no 
longer.  "  Fathers,  Brothers !  "  I  exclaimed,  "  I 
could  gladly  linger  and  listen  to  your  high  dis- 
course on  these  themes  of  thought  while  heaven's 
school  term  holds  open;  but  after  what  we  have 
seen  and  heard  this  morning,  I  am  now  fully  de- 
cided, as  I  have  long  and  wistfully  yearned,  by 
God's  great  leave  and  furtherance,  to  go  myself  to 
hell,  and  see  the  reality,  and  help,  if  possible,  to 


38  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

save  some  in  whose  unknown  fate  I  am  intensely 
concerned." 

"  Oh,  my  boy,  my  boy !  "  Father  cautioned, 
with  a  touch  of  soul  like  the  dear  hand  of  former 
days  laid  upon  my  shoulder,  "  you  were  often,  ap- 
parently, prone  to  wish  to  do  things  because  they 
were  odd  and  peculiar  and  different  from  the  ac- 
tions of  other  people.  I  would  have  you  beware 
lest  this  surviving  impulse,  rather  than  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  call  and  a  mission,  may  be  moving 
you  to  this  strange  decision.  I  would  not  have 
my  son  come  to  be  known  as  the  crank  of  heaven." 

"  Let  Prester  follow  his  star,"  Doctor  Hitch- 
cock counseled  kindly.  "  I  was  about  to  say  to 
him  that  God  could  save  the  lost  souls  in  hell  with- 
out his  aid;  then  I  remembered  Carey.  We  have 
this  treasure  in  what  were  once  earthen  vessels. 
Throughout  the  history  of  redemption  in  our  own 
world  the  Holy  Spirit  worked  mainly  with  and 
through  men  in  saving  men." 


TO  REACH  HELL        39 


CHAPTER  III 

I  realized  now  that  my  only  hope  of  ever 
reaching  hell  was  to  get  very  near  to  Christ:  He 
has  the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death.  Yes,  I  know 
that  means  the  keys  of  Hades,  but  one  of  those  is 
the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit.  Often  had  I 
searched,  and  often  had  I  wondered,  "  where  is 
hell?  "  But  with  the  freedom  of  the  universe,  dur- 
ing more  than  twelve  decades  by  mortal  time,  since 
dying,  I  had  not  gotten  nearer  to  hell  any  where 
than  before  that  at  Five  Points  on  a  Saturday 
night,  or  in  the  visitors'  gallery  looking  down  on 
the  New  York  Stock  Exchange.  Hell  must  be 
some  sort  of  prison;  and  in  all  God's  wondrous 
cosmos  I  had  found  no  bounds  or  bars  but  those 
set  by  infinity  to  finite  knowing.  Hell  must  be 
some  very  dark  and  loveless  place ;  I  found  God's 
world  thrilling  with  His  love  and  light.  I  could 
see  sin  abounding  in  some  other  planets ;  but  in 
each  of  these,  through  the  atoning  work  of  the 
world's  only  Redeemer,  I  found  that  grace  did 
much  more  abound. 

So  I  could  see  no  way  to  get  to  hell,  but  to 
climb  down  the  ladder  of  prayer.  Wistfully  I 
drew  closer  and  closer  to  my  Saviour,  telling  Him 
over  and  over  that  I  knew  myself  unworthy  of  this 
high  boon  and  mission.  "  I  only  crave  to  be 
where  Thou  art,"  was  my  plea.  "  I  would  indeed 
follow  Thee  whithersoever  Thou  goest.     If  Thou 


40  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

art  not  in  hell  as  a  merciful  Saviour,  and  busiest 
there  of  all  places;  I  could  not  dare  to  go."  I 
often  thought  of  Peter  asking  leave  to  walk  upon 
the  water,  in  the  spirit  of  adventure,  to  get  to 
Christ,  and  in  his  self-confidence  beginning  to  sink. 
I  prayed  to  be  made  entirely  free  from  that  spirit 
of  adventure,  of  which  I  was  painfully  self-con- 
scious, and  often  reminded  by  those  who  knew  me 
and  loved  me  most ;  but  to  my  most  earnest  prayer 
for  a  change  of  heart  in  this  respect  there  would 
come  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  that  the 
spirit  of  adventure  was  all  right  as  a  motive  in  its 
place. 

"  You  know,  dear  Boy,  that  was  really  what 
made  you  go  and  pray  in  the  saloons  in  Tipple- 
ton,"  my  wife  would  remind  me.  "  And  try  to 
organize  Christian  unity  in  Churchville,"  Mother 
would  add.  "  And  join  that  cooperative  colony 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  in  Minnesota,"  Father 
would  sigh  in  concert. 

"  I  believe  there  was  a  sanctified  and  consecrated 
spirit  of  adventure  in  Livingstone  and  Carey,  and 
John  Knox,  and  Wendell  Philips,  and  pretty 
nearly  every  man  or  woman  whose  life  has 
amounted  to  much  for  God  and  for  the  new  works 
of  new  days,"  I  would  answer  stoutly.  Indeed, 
the  revulsion  of  feeling  which  would  sometimes 
come  over  me  at  the  thought  of  hell's  awfulness, 
would  warn  me  that  I  had  none  too  much  of  the 
daredevil  in  my  make-up  for  a  would-be  invader 
of  hell.     Over  and  over  my  Master's  answer  would 


THE  MISSIONARY  MOTIVE  41 

come  to  me  that  there  really  was  nothing  between 
me  and  the  summit  of  my  ambition  to  reach  hell 
but  the  need  of  a  greater,  deeper,  steadier  com- 
pulsion of  longing  to  save  lost  souls  there.  Two 
spirits  came  to  me  as  I  was  musing  and  praying 
in  one  of  the  vast  solitudes  of  the  southern  stellar 
universe.  The  one  was  swarthy  and  strange,  dif- 
ferent from  any  race  I  had  yet  met ;  the  other  so 
fair  and  radiant,  his  presence  stirred  the  back- 
ward reach  of  memory  to  recall  the  very  cheer- 
iest, calmest,  strongest  souls  I  had  ever  known. 
"  We  have  been  together  somewhere,"  I  said  in 
greeting,  "  but  I  think  only  for  a  short  time. 
Then  after  that  something  terrible  and  glorious 
happened  which  made  the  thought  of  you  sacred 
and  tender." 

"  You  are  recalling  the  Saturady  afternoon  we 
spent  with  each  other  in  the  glen  above  Tipple- 
ton,"  my  visitor  answered.  "  I  am  John  Roger 
Peale,  and  in  less  than  a  year  after  that  Rebecca 
and  I  and  three  others  were  martyred  at  Lien 
Chou." 

It  all  came  back  to  me  vividly  at  once,  the  mel- 
low light  of  the  October  afternoon,  the  gay  leaves 
dropping  on  hill-slope  and  stream,  the  swirling 
sheen  of  the  Altamere  leaping  ledges,  twisting 
around  great  rocks.  Every  reply  of  our  con- 
versation came  freshly  to  mind,  as  if  we  were  but 
just  holding  it.  "  How  hard  I  tried  to  find  some 
reluctance  in  your  soul  in  view  of  the  work  set 
before  you,"   I   reminded  my   friend   in  heaven. 


42  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  It  looked  all  so  joyous  in  anticipation;  and  all 
the  years  of  study  and  of  preparation  and  the 
vacations  spent  in  travel  among  our  churches  — 
so  little  chance  for  home  life  or  rest,  or  enjoy- 
ment, or  loved  companionship,  with  little  but  toil 
and  hardship  and  privation  to  look  forward  to  — 
these  seemed  only  a  part  of  the  zest  of  the  game 
to  you.  I  could  not  get  you  to  let  me  pity  you 
even  a  little  bit.  I  have  often  wondered  how  it 
must  seem  to  you  to  look  back  upon  from  heaven. 
What  a  disappointment  it  must  have  been  to  find 
yourself  ushered  through  that  one  glorious  day 
of  martyrdom  tamely  into  paradise  when  you  had 
but  just  reached  your  mission  field;  without  the 
opportunity  even  of  settling  down  to  one  day's 
work  and  study,  without  one  soul  won  from  all  the 
millions  of  China  to  make  heaven  complete  for 
you.  How  do  you  interpret  God's  plan  now  in 
looking  back  on  those  years  of  costly  preparation, 
the  turning  away  from  every  earthly  allurement, 
the  sacrifice  wrung  from  loving  hearts  left  to 
bleed  for  you,  the  journey  to  the  heart  of  the 
antipodes,  and  nothing  come  of  it  all?  " 

It  was  the  same  debonaire  smile  which  im- 
pressed me  on  earth  that  answered  my  question 
now.  "  China  would  have  been  great,  if  God  had 
willed  it,"  he  replied,  "  but  that  was  small  pota- 
toes and  few  in  a  hill  compared  to  mission  work  in 
hell." 

There  were  tears  in  my  soul  then  in  the  wave  of 
gratitude  that  drew  me  to  clasp  his  thought  and 


A  NEW  PROBLEM  43 

purpose.  "  Our  Master  has  sent  you,"  I  cried, 
"  and  you  are  going  to  tell  me  how  and  when  I 
can  come,  too.  And  this  brother  who  is  with  you, 
he,  too,  has  some  message  for  me.  He,  too,  has 
some  acquaintance  with  hell." 

"  I  was  born  there,"  was  the  other's  answer. 

The  universe  reeled  around  me.  "  Where  is 
there  any  hope?  "  was  the  first  sentence  I  could 
articulate.  I  was  not  unfamiliar  with  the  bud- 
ding of  souls  in  heaven :  the  sacred  j  oy  of  parent- 
hood given  to  some  who  had  not  known  that  joy 
on  earth;  but  in  all  my  dreams  of  hell  I  had  not 
contemplated  the  awful  possibility  of  reproduc- 
tion among  lost  souls.  Brought  thus  suddenly 
soul  to  soul  with  one  whose  existence  had  begun 
under  the  taint  of  hell's  heredity,  my  own  soul 
fainted  before  this  new,  appalling  hugeness  of  the 
problem  of  evil. 

"  Brother,"  Peale  said,  "  there  were  tens  of 
thousands  being  born  in  heathenism  every  day  in 
China,  and  we  were  converting  perhaps  a  score  or 
two  each  day  at  the  time  that  I  was  studying  up 
on  my  anticipated  field  of  work  there.  All  our 
converts  were  mortals,  and  the  influence  of  each 
for  Christ  in  China  came  to  an  end  with  the  little 
span  of  life.  It  often  seemed  like  sprinkling  a 
little  salt  upon  the  current  of  a  wide,  swift  river. 
But  after  a  little  more  than  a  century  and  a 
half,  look  there  and  see  China,  a  great,  homo- 
geneous, evangelical  Christian  nation,  orthodox, 


44  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

staunch,  loyal  to  Christ.  The  souls  we  win  in  hell 
are  immortals,  leavening  immortals.  Never  de- 
spair." 

I  questioned  the  other  one  about  that.  "  When 
you  are  saved,"  I  asked,  "  are  you  not  saved  out 
of  hell  into  heaven?  " 

"  I  would  dread  losing  heaven,"  he  answered, 
"  if  I  did  not  keep  on  working  in  hell.  I  find  the 
highest  heaven  in  the  deepest  hell." 

"  If  that  is  the  way  you  feel  about  it,"  I  re- 
flected, "  ought  not  we  whose  early  advantages 
have  been,  shall  I  say,  somewhat  more  favorable: 
I  hope  I  am  not  wounding  your  feelings;  ought 
we  not  also  to  take  an  interest  in  your  birthplace 
that  we  too  may  win  the  highest  heaven  ?  " 

"  I  believe  many  of  you  will  come  to  it  yet,"  he 
answered.  "  You  have  not  quite  the  reasons,  such 
as  I  possess,  for  yearning  over  our  sad  nether 
world." 

"  I  am  one  that  cares,"  I  answered,  "  I  want 
you  to  take  me  right  back  with  you." 

"  Brother  Prester,  we  can't  take  you  to  hell," 
Peale  answered,  "  You  have  just  got  to  take  your- 
self there." 

"  But  how  ?  "  I  asked,  "  I  have  been  trying  so 
long  to  find  out  how." 

"  Just  by  loving,"  was  my  friend's  reply. 
"  You  have  missed  it  somehow  just  because  it  was 
so  simple."  Then  he  went  on  to  tell  me  something 
of  his  own  experience.  "  When  we  found  our- 
selves, Rebecca  and  I,  so  suddenly  in  heaven,"  he 


THE  MARTYR'S  ENTRANCE    45 

let  me  see  him  remember,  "  out  of  that  howling, 
cruel,  crazy  mob,  and  in  the  company  of  all  the  re- 
deemed, and  angels  thrilled  and  stirred  to  heaven's 
bounds  by  the  ordeal  through  which  they  had  just 
seen  us  passing;  when  we  felt  our  heart-wounds 
kissed  by  sobbing  spirits  melted  down  in  love  and 
pity  for  us,  looked  upon  each  other  unscathed, 
immortal,  crowned  with  martyrdom,  clad  in  white 
robes  of  the  spirit,  close  to  God's  throne,  close  to 
His  heart,  to  whom  we  had  been  softly  praying 
just  a  few  moments  before  down  there  by  the  river 
in  Lien  Chou,  not  dead  at  all  but  alive !  alive !  for- 
ever more,  thought  and  love  not  lost,  but  wonder- 
fully quickened,  infinitely  widened,  preserved  by 
union  with  God's  own  eternal  thinking  and  loving, 
when  we  found  each  one  safe ;  dear  heroic  Doctor 
Eleanor,  Mrs.  Machle,  little  Amy,  gathered  fondly 
in  heaven's  embrace ;  when  the  first  ten  years'  thrill 
of  it  all  had  left  room  in  our  hearts  for  other 
thoughts  we  were  astonished  to  feel  a  certain 
blankness  even  in  the  bliss  of  heaven.  Doctor 
Chestnut  came  upon  me  hovering  over  Lien  Chou. 
*  What,  moping  in  heaven ! '  she  exclaimed  in  her 
cheery  way. 

"  '  I  am  just  puzzled,'  I  replied,  *  I  simply  can't 
get  the  syllogism  of  it  all.  If  it  were  you 
alone,  I  could  understand.  You  had  accomplished 
an  inspiring  work  in  China,  and  your  strength 
could  not  have  held  out  more  than  five  years  longer 
at  the  rate  you  were  going.  But  for  us  two,  who 
hardly  got  to  speak  a  word  of  Chinese,  it's  all 


46  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

right,  I  know,  but  our  earth-life  seems  somehow 
to  have  lost  its  meaning.' 

"  *  Do  you  feel  that  you  could  envy  the  men  and 
women  here  who  are  carrying  on  our  work  in  Lien 
Chou?  '  she  asked. 

"  ■  I  would  gladly  change  places  with  them  this 
minute,'  I  answered. 

"  '  How  do  you  really  think  I  feel?  '  she  asked 
then.  '  Do  you  think  you  had  gotten  to  feel  more 
interest  in  the  Chinese  in  a  month  of  travel  among 
them  than  I  in  those  years  of  work  with  their  sick 
souls  and  bodies?  Do  you  suppose  that  eleven 
years  of  foreign  mission  work  was  enough  for  me 
out  of  my  eternity  ?  ' 

"  '  Surely,  you  don't  mean  that  you  are  not 
satisfied  in  heaven,'  I  said  reluctantly.  *  Would 
you  like  to  be  back  at  the  old  task  that  was  already 
killing  you  by  inches?  Could  you  go  back  and 
spend  another  year  like  the  one  in  which  you  were 
all  alone  with  hospital  and  church  and  school  in 
inner  China?  ' 

"  '  I  could  very  gladly,'  she  replied,  '  but  I  have 
found  a  better  job.'  Then  she  told  me  how  the 
prayer  for  her  murderers  which  was  trembling  on 
her  lips  when  the  last  merciless  blow  was  struck 
had  lingered  in  her  soul  in  paradise,  and  the  pity 
with  which  she  had  stooped  to  bind  up  the  fore- 
head of  the  little  Chinese  boy  wounded  in  the  mob, 
as  blows  and  curses  were  falling  upon  her,  had 
only  deepened  in  her  soul  in  glory;  how  she  had 
followed  her  murderers  to  their  execution,   and 


THE  LOVE  LINE  47 

loved  them  and  longed  over  their  vanishing  spirits, 
as  she  had  yearned  over  so  many  brought  in  ex- 
tremity to  the  hospital  and  dying  there  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  Saviour;  until  in  utter  self-for- 
getfulness  of  pity,  she  had  found  herself  among 
them  all  in  hell.  '  I  did  not  ask  to  be  sent  on  my 
mission  to  hell,'  she  said,  '  it  was  something  I  had 
never  thought  of.  I  just  got  there  by  loving  some 
poor  souls  that  had  gone  there.  I  was  never  more 
astonished  in  all  my  existence.  I  was  scared,  and 
yet  so  glad ! '  And  there  she  had  fallen  to  work, 
binding  up  lacerated  spirits,  resetting  souls  that 
were  out  of  joint,  rubbing  into  them  the  healing 
influences  of  God's  infinite  love  in  a  merciful 
Saviour.  '  Oh,  I've  been  having  good  times  in 
hell,  Brother ! '  she  told  me. 

"  '  But  we've  never  missed  you  from  heaven,'  I 
protested,  4  and  you  haven't  talked  about  being 
away  any  of  the  time.' 

"  '  No,  I  have  been  happy,  oh,  so  happy !  in 
heaven  all  the  time,'  she  explained.  '  But  I 
couldn't  tell  you  about  the  other  life  because  you 
had  not  grown  quite  enough  interested.' 

"  This  struck  me  square.  Was  it  possible  that 
I  had  been  going  backward  in  heaven  ?  I  had  con- 
tinued to  study  China  with  even  greater  interest 
than  before  I  went  there  to  die.  But  I  had  seen 
a  hundred  millions  of  her  people  weaken  and  leave 
the  world,  and  the  idea  had  never  popped  into  my 
head  that  I  might  go  to  hell  and  meet  some  of  them 
with   the   message    of    salvation.     '  Never   mind, 


48  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Brother,'  Doctor  Chestnut  said  gently,  '  men  are 
slow,  and  they  can't  help  it.  You  have  been 
broadening  in  many  ways,  and  getting  a  new 
preparation  for  the  greatest  work  of  all.  You 
have  lost  ten  years  in  China ;  but  you  can  make  it 
up  ten  times  over  in  one  year  of  winning  Chinese 
souls  in  hell.' 

"  I  wondered  how  that  could  be.  '  I  can  under- 
stand that  there  may  be  no  language  to  learn,'  I 
replied,  '  for  I  suppose  lost  souls  think  to  each 
other  without  words  as  we  do  here  in  heaven ;  but 
surely  they  must  be  further  from  God  there  than 
on  earth,  and  more  hopeless  in  their  environment, 
and  more  fixed  in  their  character,  with  the  per- 
manence of  eternity.' 

"  But  she  answered  me,  6  Have  you  forgotten 
Our  Lord's  words,  "  He  that  knew  not,  and  did 
things  worthy  of  stripes,  shall  be  beaten  with  few 
stripes  ?  "  Has  he  never  talked  that  over  with 
you?  The  heathen  in  hell  are  like  immigrants  in 
a  strange  country.  The  hold  of  old  ideas  is 
loosened.  Old  customs  that  were  largely  external 
no  longer  shape  their  thoughts.  Chinese  spirits 
have  no  cues  to  wear  and  no  feet  to  bind.  The 
ancestors  they  once  worshipped  have  now  become 
their  contemporaries.  Every  thing  is  new  to 
them,  and  they  are  ready  for  new  errors  which 
Satan  may  teach  them,  or  equally  for  the  new, 
glad  tidings  of  great  joy  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
helps  us  to  make  plain  to  them.  The  Devil  has 
to  begin  his  work  on  them  almost  all  over  again 


HELL'S  BETTER  OPPORTUNITY        49 

from  the  start;  so  we  have  a  chance  to  get  in 
even  with  him.' 

"  And  so  I  have  found  it,"  Peale  concluded, 
"  during  the  century  and  a  half  by  earth's  sun 
which  I  have  spent  in  happy  mission  work  among 
unsaved  Chinese  spirits  down  below.  The  mis- 
sionaries who  are  doing  the  hard,  up-hill  work  in 
hell  are  not  those  assigned  to  the  spirits  of  former 
heathen,  but  it  is  those  who  are  trying  to  do  some- 
thing with  the  damned  from  Christendom,  gos- 
pel-hardened even  in  hell,  people  who  have  known 
the  truth  all  through  their  earthly  lives,  and  are 
not  surprised  in  eternity  to  find  it  true;  but  they 
have  grown  adept  in  hardening  their  hearts 
against  God's  truth.  There  are  first  to  hear  the 
gospel  that  shall  be  last  to  accept  it." 

"  But  these  are  the  ones  whose  fate  interests 
me  most,"  I  suggested.  "  I  cannot  get  them  out 
of  my  mind.  Face  after  face  rises  before  me; 
people  I  could  accomplish  little  for  on  earth. 
Soul-winning  in  the  most  refined,  exclusive  circles 
of  hell  could  not  be  much  slower  than  such  work 
in  connection  with  some  of  our  churches.  But  I 
feel  that  if  it  were  only  one  won  from  Satan's  sad 
domain,  that  would  be  well  worth  an  eternity  of 
patient  seeking." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  that,  Brother," 
Peale  replied.  "  It  shows  that  you  are  not  far 
from  the  kingdom  of  hell.  I  have  been  con- 
cerned for  fear  you  might  never  reach  hell  after 
all.     Pardon  me,  you  seemed  to  be  almost  as  much 


50  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

interested  in  Nathaniel  Prester's  intended  mission 
as  in  the  lost  souls  to  be  saved.  But  I  believe  you 
are  now  coming  to  the  point  where  you  can  wish 
with  Paul  almost  that  you  yourself  might  be  ac- 
cursed for  your  brethren's  sake,  that,. they  might 
be  saved.  When  you  love  these  brothers  in  hell 
so  much  that  you  will  be  willing  even  to  have  your 
own  soul  singed  in  their  lake  of  fire,  if  only  you 
can  be  made  an  instrument  for  salvation  to  some 
of  them ;  although  all  heaven  may  not  get  thrilled 
right  away  with  the  knowledge  of  your  endeavor ; 
why  then  I  think,  for  any  other  drawbacks  in  your 
case,  you  may  expect  to  get  your  commission  in 
due  time." 

"  How  you  must  see  through  me ! "  I  exclaimed, 
even  with  tears  of  the  soul.  "  You  make  me  re- 
alize how  far  I  am  yet  from  being  made  perfect 
in  love.  I  fear  it  has  ever  been  my  disposition 
to  dream  noble  things  rather  than  do  them  all  day 
long.  I  do  wish  to  be  different,  but  I  forget  so 
often." 

"  It  is  not  for  me  to  judge  you,  Brother," 
Peale  answered,  "  only  we  cannot  speak  anything 
but  the  truth  in  heaven.  I  noticed  you  weren't 
really  chummy  with  the  companion  I  brought  with 
me,  and  so,  in  spite  of  all  your  enthusiasm  in  the 
abstract  to  go  slumming  in  hell,  I  wondered  how 
you  could  stand  its  actual,  prosaic  contact.  We 
found  in  foreign  mission  work  that  the  enthusias- 
tic, excitable  dreamers  soon  wore  out.  It  was  the 
dull,  phlegmatic  fellows,  rather,  that  went  plod- 


THE  OLD  DRAWBACK  51 

ding  ahead,  stood  the  rub,  got  used  to  the  heathen, 
and   saved  them." 

"  You  mean  that  I  must  get  to  be  chummy  with 
the  damned,  even  before  I  convert  them?  " 

"  Certainly.  It  must  be  '  Hail  fellow,  well- 
met  ! '  or  no  converts  at  all.  Was  not  our  Master 
reproached  as  the  friend  of  sinners  ?  " 

"  I  wish  I  could  call  your  hell-born  friend 
back,"  I  said  contritely,  "  I'm  sorry  I  lost  touch 
with  him.     How  much  I  could  learn  from  him !  " 

"  Perhaps  he  will  be  the  one  sent  to  lead  you 
when  you  are  quite  ready  for  the  plunge,"  was 
Peale's  encouraging  answer.  "  God  bless  you, 
Brother,  and  make  you  worthy  of  this  His  highest 
calling  in  Christ  Jesus." 

After  that  I  began  to  pray  not  quite  so  much 
for  myself  that  I  might  be  led  to  hell ;  for  some- 
how I  seemed  to  lose  my  anxiety  about  that ;  as  for 
one  and  another  individual  friend  of  the  earth-life 
whose  presence  we  had  missed  in  heaven.  Over 
and  over,  out  into  the  gloom  of  uncertainty  which 
overhung  their  fate,  my  heart's  cry  to  God's  ten- 
der omnipresence  was  that  they  might  be  saved. 
It  seemed  of  less  consequence  by  whose  instru- 
mentality this  might  be  accomplished;  only  I 
prayed  to  be  ready  if  the  call  came  to  me ;  and  it 
seemed  in  some  of  their  cases  at  least  that  I  ought 
to  be  the  one  to  go  and  seek  them  out ;  for  I  could 
see  now  that  it  had  been  by  reason  of  a  sad  lack 
of  chumminess  on  my  part  they  had  missed  being 
saved  on  earth.     I  recalled  the  first  funeral  at 


52  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

which  I  had  dared  to  pray  for  the  presumably 
unrepentant  soul  of  the  deceased.  "  What  was 
the  use  of  praying  for  Mr.  Chartier  now?  "  my 
eldest  son,  Thoughtful,  asked  me  when  I  came 
home  from  the  cemetery. 

"  I  wanted  to  do  something  more  for  him,  and  I 
couldn't  think  of  anything  else  to  do." 

"  I  think  you  had  done  enough  for  him. 
Haven't  you  been  praying  for  him  ever  since  you 
came  here?  Didn't  you  pray  with  him  and  work 
with  him  the  other  time  he  was  sick  before  he  had 
this  stroke  ?     What  good  did  it  all  do  ?  " 

"  And  the  next  caller  he  had  brought  him  the 
bottle !  "  I  exclaimed  sorrowfully. 

"  Do  you  think  he  may  be  where  praying  for 
him  may  do  more  good  now  ?  "  Thoughtful  asked. 

"  At  any  rate  he  is  out  of  the  reach  of  bottles," 
I  contended. 

"  But  in  hell,  where  the  old  Devil  has  everything 
his  own  way,  don't  you  suppose  he  could  fix  up 
something  just  as  alluring  as  whiskey?" 

"  I  have  my  doubts  about  whether  the  Devil  has 
everything  his  own  way  in  hell,"  I  replied. 
"  Would  God  be  God,  and  let  him?  " 

"  He  comes  near  enough  to  having  it  in  Tipple- 
ton,"  Thoughtful  moralized ;  "  but  doesn't  the 
Bible  say  that  no  drunkard  shall  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  ?  " 

"  Certainly,  not ;  unless  he  reforms,  like  all  the 
other  kinds  of  evil  doers  on  Paul's  list." 


PRAYER  FOR  OUR  DEAD  53 

"  What  chance  would  he  have  of  reforming  in 
hell  any  more  than  in  Tippleton?  " 

"  If  Chartier  had  let  the  grace  of  God  into 
his  heart,  he  might  easily  have  reformed  even  in 
Tippleton,"  I  answered.  "  Other  men  have  done 
that  in  worse  places.  Jesus  is  able  to  save  unto 
the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  through 
him.  I  ought  not  to  be  talking  to  you  in  a  way 
to  unsettle  your  views,  my  Boy;  but  the  question 
that  keeps  coming  into  my  soul  is,  '  Why  not  unto 
the  uttermost  hell  ?  '  There  was  nothing  wrong 
with  poor  Chartier,  aside  from  the  drink;  a 
kinder,  truer  heart  rarely  beat  in  a  human  breast. 
And  just  now  before  Satan  has  time  to  get  a  new 
clinch  on  his  soul,  ought  not  our  prayers  to  follow 
him  with  redoubled  earnestness?  When  I  think 
of  how  much  more  frequently  I  might  have  sought 
his  company  and  tried  to  help  him ;  my  heart  aches, 
and  I've  just  got  to  pray  that  God  will  forgive 
me  and  still  save  him  in  some  way." 

Thoughtful  was  silent  for  a  while.  "  Yes,  but 
Papa,"  at  last  he  said,  with  some  hesitation,  "if 
we  can  make  ourselves  feel  easier  by  praying  for 
people  after  they  are  dead  for  not  doing  all  we 
could  to  save  them  while  they  were  living,  won't 
that  make  us  that  much  more  apt  to  neglect  the 
next  unsaved  ones,  and  to  think  we  can  let  them 
slide,  and  still  they  may  get  saved  in  eternity  some- 
way ?  " 

"  On  the  contrary,"  I  answered  stoutly,  "  the 


54  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

thought  of  having  just  this  brief  moment  to 
snatch  men  from  the  certainty  of  eternal  per- 
dition, I  believe,  is  what  paralyzes  the  activities 
of  so  many  Christians  to-day.  It  makes  the  Devil 
seem  so  strong  and  God  so  weak.  It  gives  Satan 
all  eternity  to  wreak  his  fell  purposes;  while  the 
Saviour  is  left  with  a  handbreadth's  time  in  which 
to  succor  men  against  all  the  wiles  of  the  Adver- 
sary, against  the  dull  inertia  of  ignorance,  super- 
stition, prejudice,  stupidity,  against  the  down- 
ward drag  of  vice  and  animalism,  oppression, 
hatred,  and  that  whole  obdurate  wrongness  of 
human  affairs  which  we  may  well  call  original  sin. 
For  my  part,  it  is  this  larger  hope  of  a  continued 
work  of  redemption  which  first  began  to  give  me 
courage  to  try  to  save  men.  Before  it  came  to  me, 
I  stood  like  one  under  the  oppression  of  a  night- 
mare watching  a  vast  resistless  tide  of  evil  sweep- 
ing men  and  women  and  children  swiftly  toward 
eternal  despair.  I  tried  to  speak  in  warning ;  but 
my  tongue  would  not  move.  I  tried  to  stretch  out 
a  hand  to  save  even  one;  but  my  arm  hung  limp 
by  my  side.  The  odds  were  too  terribly  against 
the  attempt.  It  is  only  since  I  have  begun  to 
hope  that  the  little  I  may  be  able  to  do  to  save  men 
here  is  a  part  of  God's  great  line  of  business  for 
the  redemption  of  His  whole  universe,  and  that  He 
intends  the  vast  job  to  go  on  out  into  eternity  to 
the  driving  of  the  last  spike,  that  my  heart  has 
gotten  light  enough  for  effective  service.  Now, 
when  I  have  to  bury  a  man  without  having  sue- 


THE  NERVE  FOR  SERVICE  55 

ceeded  in  bringing  him  around  to  my  way  of 
thinking  and  my  trust  in  the  Saviour  of  sinners,  I 
find  I  can  still  pray  for  him  cheerily,  leave  him 
with  the  eternal  Redeemer  who  loves  him  more 
truly  and  wisely  than  I  have  ever  managed  to  do, 
and  then  turn  with  undiminished  courage  to  the 
next  sinner  to  be  saved.  I  pray  the  Master  to 
show  me  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  these  new 
thoughts  by  the  way  they  work  out  in  my  own 
zeal  for  His  service.  Before  these  hopes  came  to 
me  I  could  not  forget  the  things  behind  or  reach 
out  to  those  before.  My  mind  was  continually  on 
the  rack  thinking  of  the  mistakes  and  failures  I 
had  made  in  dealing  with  men  and  of  the  unfaith- 
fulness of  which  I  had  been  guilty  in  the  case  of 
one  and  another,  until  I  was  depressed  and  un- 
nerved with  the  awful  thought  that  a  soul's  eter- 
nity had  been  hopelessly  ruined  by  my  slip.  Eter- 
nity is  solemn  enough  to  face  with  the  care  of 
souls,  without  the  horror  of  fixed  despair  over 
their  fate." 

My  son  had  one  more  question  for  me.  "  But 
how  about  those  bad  men  that  heard  you  pray  for 
Mr.  Chartier  in  the  church  this  morning?  "  he 
asked.  "  How  about  the  liquor  men  that  were  his 
pall-bearers?  Won't  they  say,  'Well,  it's  all 
right  for  Chartier:  the  Dominie's  prayed  him 
into  heaven.  And  we'll  get  there  the  same  way  at 
last,  maybe.'  Perhaps  they  will  think  they  can 
go  on  ruining  men  as  fast  as  they  please,  and 
then,  out  in  eternity,  their  drunkards  will  get  so- 


56  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

bered  up  and  saved  somehow,  and  they  won't  have 
to  answer  for  them." 

I  was  hard  bestead  for  an  answer,  as  we  often 
are  to  the  question  of  a  child.  After  some  reflec- 
tion I  suggested  that  we  might  similarly  reason 
about  the  enemies  of  Christ  that  they  could  take 
comfort  from  his  dying  prayer  for  their  forgive- 
ness from  the  Father  and  say,  "  It's  all  right : 
we've  got  him  out  of  the  way,  and  he's  asked  God 
not  to  do  anything  to  us  for  killing  him."  People 
do  not  carp  and  criticise  when  their  hearts  are 
softened.  Some  of  those  triumphant  persecutors 
were  so  moved  by  Christ's  prayer,  "  Father,  for- 
give them ! "  that  they  were  ready  on  Peter's  first 
accusation  of  their  guilt  in  killing  Jesus  to  be 
pricked  in  their  hearts  and  cry,  "  What  shall  we 
do?  " 

"  Suppose  I  had  said  to  my  congregation  at  the 
funeral,"  I  suggested  to  Thoughtful,  " '  Our 
friend,  Chartier,  we  have  strong  reason  to  be- 
lieve, is  now  in  hell  for  all  eternity.  And  you 
devils  in  human  shape  that  sold  him  the  liquor  have 
put  him  there.'  One  proof  of  the  truth  or  false- 
hood of  a  doctrine  is  whether  we  can  faithfully 
and  kindly  declare  it  anywhere.  Nobody  could 
quite  believe  that  this  hard-working,  gentle,  kindly 
man,  who  never  intentionally  harmed  anyone  but 
himself,  is  now  to  spend  an  unending  eternity  in 
torment  for  what  was  largely  the  result  of  un- 
toward conditions  about  his  life.  The  theory  of 
the  future  life  that  I  am  beginning  to  believe  is 


WHY  NOT?  57 

one  which  I  could  have  unfolded  right  there  to 
weeping  relatives  and  sorrowing  friends,  as  well  as 
to  those  wicked  enslavers  of  men,  and  all  would 
have  felt  the  majesty,  the  unalterable  working  of 
God's  law,  and  the  triumphs  of  His  grace,  here  and 
hereafter.  They  would  have  wept  for  Chartier 
and  prayed  for  him  with  a  fervor  of  mingled  hope 
and  fear  which  is  denied  them  now  by  the  thought- 
paralyzing  effect  of  a  doctrine  of  fixed  and  end- 
less retribution  which  no  one  could  really  believe 
without  going  mad.  I  begin  to  think  we  ought 
to  preach  continued  redemption  just  to  get 
men  interested  in  eternity  again,  and  to  make  hell 
real  to  them.  I  didn't  pray  Chartier  into 
heaven,  as  they  all  very  well  know.  It  was  be- 
cause I  was  deeply  concerned  for  his  fate,  that  I 
just  had  to  pray  for  him." 

So  I  found  myself  praying  for  him  again  in 
heaven,  after  my  son  himself  had  grown  to  be  an 
old  man  on  earth,  and  had  come  to  us  to  renew 
these  high  themes  of  talk  in  the  glory  land.  A 
new  baptism  of  the  spirit  of  prayer  came  upon 
me  after  that  interview  with  Peale.  I  prayed  for 
Rorer,  and  for  Elder  Smiley,  who  died,  to  all 
appearances,  the  same  smirking,  pious  fraud  he 
had  been  all  his  life.  I  prayed  for  Lou  Sawyer 
and  for  Doctor  Charlie  Love  joy,  two  suicides  from 
drink,  buried  out  of  one  congregation  in  less  than 
a  year.  One  after  another,  I  prayed  for  scores 
of  those  for  whose  salvation  I  had  wrestled  in 
vain  on  earth;  and  my  heart  went  out  in  earnest 


58  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

longing  to  God  for  the  souls  of  men  and  women 
in  whose  lives  or  thoughts  I  had  become  interested, 
but  whom  I  had  never  known  on  earth  or  met  in 
heaven:  Paine,  Ingersoll,  Voltaire,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Charlotte  Corday,  Brigham  Young, 
Lord  Byron,  Poe,  General  Weyler,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  Warren  Hastings,  Captain  Kidd,  some 
of  the  multi-millionaire  church  members  of  fren- 
zied finance  and  beef-trust  fame  who  were  my 
earthly  contemporaries,  and  a  great  many  other 
interesting  people  whom  I  felt  that  I  would 
like  to  know,  none  of  whom  I  wished  to  think 
of  as  burning  in  hell  forever.  Then  there  were 
near  kindred  after  the  flesh,  and  playmates  of 
childhood,  dear  for  old  association's  sake ;  my  boy- 
hood's chum,  Hatchet  Ecchols,  who  joined  the 
church  with  me  and  grew  up  to  be  an  infidel; 
pretty,  timid,  little  Sadie  Wells,  who  married  him ; 
Joy's  cousin,  Albert,  who  was  jealous  of  me  in  our 
younger  days ;  yet  he  was  the  one  whom  she  came 
to  give  her  life  to,  after  all.  Nightly,  in  my  boy- 
hood, I  prayed  for  Joy  that  God  would  give  her 
a  worthy  husband  some  day,  and  then  I  would 
pray  wistfully  that  I  might  dream  of  her  that 
night.  Afterwards,  when  we  were  engaged,  it 
seemed  that  I  would  need  to  strive  very  earnestly 
indeed  in  order  that  my  boyhood's  prayer  might 
find  an  answer.  And  then  when  the  strangeness 
of  separation  came,  after  our  supreme  renunci- 
ation, and  still  I  dreamed  of  her  by  night,  and 
the  grey  years  came  and  went  and  I  heard  she 


DRAWING  NEARER  59 

had  married  Albert,  I  often  prayed  for  him  that 
he  might  love  her  Saviour  and  truly  have  a  share 
in  her  soul's  life.  Joy  had  long  been  to  Jeanie 
and  me  our  dearest  fellow  creature  in  heaven,  and 
now  it  was  one  of  my  greatest  encouragements 
that  she  was  beginning  to  talk  to  us  about  Albert. 
u  I  feel  that  you  will  soon  be  in  hell,  Brother 
Nat,"  she  would  say ;  "  promise  me  you  will  look 
for  Albert  first." 

Indeed  the  partition  wall  was  growing  thinner 
between  my  soul  and  hell  as  the  old  love  for  lost 
ones  stirred  within.  Now  there  came  times  when 
I  would  hear  strange  far-away  minor  chords  steal- 
ing in  with  the  jubilant  music  of  heaven,  faint 
muffled  echoes  of  wailing  voices  that  thrilled  me 
with  intenser  longing.  And  sometimes  as  I 
prayed  there  would  come  a  change  over  the  glory 
of  heaven's  light,  like  the  bodeful  sheen  of  clouds 
over  red  at  sunset  before  a  storm,  while  unex- 
plained shadows  beckoned  and  stretched  thin 
hands  appealingly.  And  I  would  feel  around  and 
beneath  me  earthquake  quavers  of  infinite  unrest; 
yet  even  while  I  was  shrinking  and  saying  to  my- 
self, "  Is  this  a  part  of  hell?  "  God  would  give  his 
answer  of  love  to  my  prayer  for  manhood  to 
brave  it  all,  more  distinct  than  we  ever  felt  God's 
answer  when  we  prayed  in  the  body  of  flesh,  and 
there  would  come  a  deeper  peace  within  than  even 
heaven  had  ever  given. 

"  Perhaps  it  will  be  with  you,  dear  Boy," 
Jeanie  suggested  encouragingly  when  I  told  her 


60  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

of  one  of  these  visions,  "  perhaps  it  will  be  with 
you  as  it  was  with  Job.  Heaven  to  your  soul's 
great  longing  just  now  is  only  a  sweet  captivity. 
But  you  know  the  Lord  turned  again  the  cap- 
tivity of  Job  when  he  prayed  for  his  friends." 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  61 


CHAPTER  IV 

"What  is  this  frightful  din?  "  I  shouted  with 
all  my  might  into  the  swarthy  soul  of  my  guide 
as  we  plunged  cheerily  down  into  hell.  "  Is  it  a 
vast  loom-room,  a  whip  factory,  a  boiler  works, 
or  is  hell  the  central  stock  exchange  sure 
enough  ?  " 

He  explained  that  these  clanging  sounds  were 
the  angry  thoughts  of  lost  spirits  around  us. 
Presently  I  began  to  distinguish  oaths.  It  was 
so  long  since  I  had  heard  such  a  thing  that  I  came 
near  rebounding  out  of  hell.  "  Hold  down ! " 
cried  my  guide,  clutching  me,  "  profanity  is  no 
more  horrible,  essentially,  in  hell  than  it  was  on 
earth." 

"  If  you  wish  me  to  become  so  familiar  with  it, 
that  I  won't  mind  it,"  I  answered  reluctantly, 
"  that  would  seem  to  be  going  backward  in  the 
Christian  life,  back  of  where  I  stood  on  earth. 
I  always  did,  even  in  my  skeptical  days,  hold  this 
vice  to  be  the  most  gratuitous,  the  most  senseless, 
the  most  purely  devilish,  the  basest,  the  most 
despicable  — " 

"  Come,  come,  brother ! "  my  companion  inter- 
rupted hastily  and  in  evident  alarm.  "  If  you 
get  angry  in  the  midst  of  hell's  anger,  you  are  in 
danger  of  being  caught  in  the  mesh  of  hell's  affini- 
ties.    This  is  Satan's  first  snare  for  your  soul." 


62  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  God  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day,"  I 
quoted,  only  half  appeased. 

"  Yet  still  he  loves  them.  It  was  for  just  this 
sort  that  Jesus  died.  We  must  not  be  overcome 
with  this  evil,  but  overcome  it  with  good.  Hold 
strongly  to  Christ  and  his  aloofness  of  loving 
hateful  ones,  or  you  may  find  yourself  out  of  hell 
for  good,  or  out  of  heaven  for  a  time,  if  that  is 
possible  for  one  kept  by  the  power  of  God 
through  faith  unto  salvation  ready  to  be  revealed 
in  the  last  time." 

"  Is  it  like  this  always  here  ?  "  I  asked  won- 
deringly. 

"  There  are  all  sorts  in  hell,"  was  the  answer ; 
"  that  is,  all  unredeemed  sorts.  Many  hate  the 
noise,  and  that  makes  hate's  noise  the  louder. 
Many  enjoy  it  in  a  way,  and  keep  it  up  with  all 
varieties  of  ingenious  discord.  Some  have  not 
character  or  life  enough  left  to  hate:  they  crawl 
over  each  other  in  numb  and  slimy  indifference. 
Each  finds  his  like ;  consequently  those  who  dislike 
each  other  most  are  constantly  drawn  together  by 
an  affinity  of  aversion.  I  was  born  here  eight 
hundred  years  ago  of  earth's  circlings  round  her 
sun.  I  have  never  known  that  boon  of  weary 
mortals,  sleep.  It  was  mostly  like  this  until  the 
peace  of  God  that  passeth  understanding  began 
to  keep  my  heart  and  mind  in  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  Jesus.  For  forty  years  I  have  been  an 
evangelist  and  trophy  of  God's  redeeming  grace 
in  hell,  and  it  has  seemed  comparatively  quiet  here 


HEAVEN'S  DEAREST  STORY        63 

since  the  noise  died  out  of  the  inside  of  my  soul." 
I  began  to  reverence  Peale's  dusky  friend  as 
more  a  saint  than  any  of  us.  I  asked  him  if  he 
had  ever  murmured  at  the  strange  providence 
which  had  appointed  to  him  to  be  born  in  this 
horrible  place.  "  Every  condition  has  its  com- 
pensations," he  answered  smiling,  "  and  shall  the 
clay  say  to  him  that  fashioneth  it,  '  What  makest 
thou  ?  '  Seven  hundred  and  sixty  years  of  dark- 
est hell  were  short  to  end  in  the  blessedness  I  have 
known  these  forty  years  of  trust  in  Jesus.  You 
used  to  sing  a  hymn : 

"  Earth  has  a  joy  unknown  to  heaven; 
The  new-born  peace  of  souls  forgiven. 
Tears  of  such  rich  and  pure  delight, 
Ye  angels,  never  dimmed  your  sight." 

"  By  similar  reasoning  you  may  well  conclude 
that  hell  has  a  joy  unknown  to  all  the  universe 
beside.  Angels  listen  to  our  story  as  they  do  not 
even  listen  to  yours." 

"  Where  are  all  the  people  in  hell  ?  "  I  asked 
my  guide  presently.  "  I  have  the  feeling,  like  a 
deep  sea  diver,  of  an  infinite  mass ;  but  I  cannot 
perceive  any  individual  spirits." 

"  That  is  because  you  have  not  come  by  prac- 
tice to  sympathize  and  intersphere  with  any  par- 
ticular one,"  he  answered.  "  I  have  recognized 
scores  of  old  acquaintances  already.  Haven't 
you  felt  the  rub  yet  ?  " 

"  I  experienced  a  slight  sensation  just  now," 


64  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

I  answered.  "  It  was  somewhat  grating,  like  the 
lick  of  a  cow's  tongue." 

"  That  was  the  rub  of  a  passing  spirit,"  my 
companion  explained.  "  Just  as  in  heaven, 
where  souls  are  seeking  each  other's  welfare,  the 
touch  of  each  soul  is  a  thrill  of  pleasure ;  so  here 
in  hell,  where  each,  for  the  most  part,  is  bent  on 
his  own  purposes  and  following  his  own  designs, 
spirits  mostly  rub  each  other  the  wrong  way. 
The  rub  may  be  slight,  and  quite  unintentionally 
given;  but  in  the  aggregate  they  keep  the  soul's 
cuticle  raw  and  sore." 

I  asked  him  if  there  was  no  love  in  hell,  and  he 
was  explaining  to  me  that  much  which  went  by 
that  name  there  was  mixed  with  selfish  exclusive- 
ness,  with  jealousy  and  burning  lust  of  spirits, 
and  marred  by  changef ulness  and  insincerity ; 
when  in  my  grief  and  pity  for  it  all  I  saw  some- 
thing that  made  me  exclaim  in  interruption,  "  Do 
look  at  that  singular  creature !  "  Presently  I  be- 
gan to  see  thousands  of  them.  I  tried  to  express 
to  my  guide  how  they  impressed  me.  "  They 
are  like  human  faces,"  I  said,  "  but  they  are  faces 
distorted  as  though  seen  in  concave,  convex,  im- 
perfect mirrors.  I  see  them  as  if  through  a  wav- 
ing current  of  hot  air ;  they  do  not  keep  the  same 
shape ;  I  see  them  in  curved  and  broken  lines  that 
continually  change.  Now  the  faces  are  elon- 
gated, now  they  are  broadened;  now  one  is  dim- 
pled, now  it  is  puckered ;  now  it  expresses  one  ex- 
aggerated trait,  now  another.     They  confuse  me. 


TYPES  AND  TRAITS  65 

I  am  ashamed  to  say,  they  frighten  me  some- 
what." 

"  Those  are  the  lies  in  each  soul,"  again  ex- 
plained my  guide.  "  I  see  you  are  fast  getting 
into  the  inwardness  of  hell.  All  hearts  here,  as 
everywhere,  are  open  to  sympathy,  if  you  can 
only  really  feel  it.  When  you  have  learned  to  see 
them  clearer  in  sympathetic  insight,  you  will  find 
a  more  fixed  expression  of  individuality  in  each, 
the  real  self  behind  the  mask.  Always  talk  to 
that." 

"  I  wonder  why  you  do  not  inquire  about  the 
smell,"  my  new  friend  asked  presently. 

"  I  felt  embarrassed,"  was  my  answer.  "  It 
puzzles,  while  it  sickens  me.  I  was  prepared  for 
brimstone ;  but  carrion !     How  can  I !  " 

"  Hell  is  the  lazzar  house  of  putrifying  souls," 
my  friend  sorrowfully  replied.  "  Every  im- 
pure thought  and  impulse  here  emits  its  odor  of 
corruption.  The  cancer  and  the  leprosy  of  sin 
are  everywhere." 

"  Is  there  no  disinfectant  or  deodorizer?  "  I 
gasped.  "  And  are  not  the  victims  themselves 
distressed  by  it?  " 

"  Fix  your  attention  upon  pure  thoughts,"  was 
his  counsel.  "  There  is  no  other  relief.  Live 
above  hell  while  you  live  in  it.  The  horror  of 
this  stench  to  those  from  whom  it  emanates  is  that 
they  half  love,  half  loathe  it.  It  fills  hell  with 
attractions  and  repulsions  of  equal  wretchedness. 
You  will  find  presently  that  each  soul  has  its  own 


66  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

scent.  But  the  more  you  love  and  pity  each,  the 
less  personal  distress  you  will  experience." 

I  was  appalled  at  the  numbers  of  the  throng  at 
hand,  suggestive  of  the  density  of  hell's  popu- 
lation. Heaven  had  seemed  truly  like  a  city  for 
its  vast  concourse  of  souls  redeemed  from  every 
kindred  and  tongue  and  nation  and  people,  from 
every  habitable  planet,  and  from  all  the  ages  since 
Satan  first  fell,  with  the  innumerable  company  of 
angels,  and  the  citizens  of  those  principalities  and 
dukedoms  in  the  heavenlies  which  had  never 
known  sin  or  sorrow;  but  when  I  compared  the 
frequent  meetings  of  heaven's  golden  streets  of 
love  radiating  outward  toward  the  rim  of  immens- 
ity from  that  great  white  throne  which  itself  was 
everywhere  —  when  I  compared  all  that  with  the 
appalling  welter  of  hell  of  which  I  was  begin- 
ning to  be  conscious,  I  exclaimed  to  my  new 
friend,  "  We  are  still  in  the  minority.  Heaven 
is  sparse,  heaven  is  countrified ;  this  is  the  city ! " 

"  All  this  helps  us  to  think  how  great  heaven 
will  be  at  last,"  he  answered.  "  Here  in  hell  we 
are  back  among  the  crude  beginnings:  we  are 
among  those  former  things  which  in  heaven  are 
passed  away." 

"  But  how  could  we  ever  have  faced  the 
thought,"  I  exclaimed  again,  "  that  our  merciful 
God  intended  all  these  millions  of  millions  to  go 
on  like  this  to  all  eternity  with  no  further  effort 
to  convince  and  save  them !  " 

"  For  all  that,  they  must  go  on  for  the  most 


PITEOUS  CONGESTION  67 

part  like  this  until  one  by  one  they  each  make 
an  individual  surrender  to  God.  There  is  no  way 
out  of  here  but  through  the  wicket  gate.  The 
wonderful  thing  is  that  any  of  them  should  have 
been  willing  to  stand  it  so  long,  rather  than  begin 
life  anew  in  repentance  toward  God  and  faith 
toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

I  was  recovering  from  my  first  chill  of  hor- 
ror, and  filled  with  eagerness  to  make  my  first 
convert.  How  to  find  Albert  and  keep  my  prom- 
ise to  Joy  was  the  next  problem. 

"  Is  it  at  all  possible  out  of  this  vast  hay- 
stack," I  asked  wonderingly,  "  to  extract  the  one 
little  needle  of  the  individual  soul  you  are  looking 
for  ?  I  hardly  suppose  there  can  be  a  directory ; 
for  they  all  seem  to  be  eternally  on  the  move." 

"  Our  Father  has  the  directory,"  my  companion 
replied.  "  Each  soul  here  is  known  to  him. 
Each  is  his  child,  his  prodigal.  But  if  you  wish 
to  find  some  particular  acquaintance,  just  love 
him.  Love  draws  a  long  way  in  hell  by  reason  of 
its  scarcity.  That  is  why  we  are  pressed  upon 
by  such  a  throng.  The  novelty  of  our  pity  draws 
them  from  far  and  near.  The  probability  is  that 
no  one  in  hell  is  really  loving  the  one  you  wish 
to  see  very  dearly  just  at  this  juncture,  and  your 
love  will  be  the  sufficient  magnet  to  draw  this 
needle  out  of  the  haystack." 

My  dusky  friend  now  suggested  that  his  pres- 
ence could  hardly  help  me  to  fix  my  desires  on  the 
spirit  I  wished  to  see ;  and  as  there  was  an  anx- 


68  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

ious  soul  calling  him  very  earnestly  from  a  great 
distance  he  felt  that  he  had  better  bid  me  adieu 
for  the  present  and  come  back  to  me  again  when- 
ever I  earnestly  needed  him. 

"  Many  thanks,  dear  brother,"  I  said,  "  and  the 
Lord  be  with  you." 

"  And  with  thy  spirit ! "  was  the  affectionate 
answer. 

So  I  found  myself  alone  in  hell.  Around  were 
these  elusive  foreigners,  millions  of  them  appar- 
ently, and  not  one  to  whom  I  could  trust  myself 
safely;  while  with  them  came  a  sinister,  all-per- 
vading, entirely  hostile  presence,  the  Father  of 
Evil.  If  I  had  not  cried  earnestly  to  God  for 
help  at  that  moment,  I  might  have  found  myself 
slinking  ingloriously  back  from  hell.  I  had  all 
the  old  familiar  childish  sensation  of  my  hair 
standing  on  end.  But  soon  there  came  to  me,  as 
to  Kate  Guiness,  weary  and  lonely  after  a  day's 
itinerating  in  central  China,  the  memory  and  the 
realization  of  our  Master's  promise  —  only  with 
a  wider  meaning  —  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  kosmos, 
and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature ;  and  lo ! 
I  am  with  you  alway."  Christ  6aid  to 
me  plainly,  "  Speak  to  them :  I  am  with  thee." 
First  I  let  my  heart  go  out  to  them  all,  and  its 
trembling  quivered  into  deep  compassion  like  that 
of  our  Saviour  when  he  saw  the  multitudes  lacer- 
ated and  driven  about  as  sheep  having  no  shep- 
herd. I  could  see  that  they  dimly  felt  my  pity. 
The  clamor  of  harsh  thoughts  abated  somewhat. 


ALONE  IN  HELL  69 

Then  a  great  exultation  seized  me  as  I  compared, 
with  a  swift  backward  glance  of  memory,  the  ease 
of  gathering  a  crowd  in  hell  with  the  meagerness 
of  some  of  the  congregations  it  had  been  my  lot 
to  address  on  the  theme  of  salvation  back  on  earth. 
"  This  is  far  and  away  ahead  of  Churchville," 
I  said  to  myself  with  keen  satisfaction,  and  moved 
by  old  association,  I  began  by  singing  them  the 
soul-melody  of  one  of  heaven's  gospel  hymns, 
wishing  that  I  might  have  brought  Strong  along 
to  do  it  better.  The  effect  surprised  me.  There 
came  a  ring  of  partial  silence  away  back  in  hell. 
Perhaps  it  was  the  effect  of  the  utter  inexperience 
of  a  new  immigrant,  the  feeling  of  my  simplicity, 
as  an  audience  will  listen  to  some  little  child.  I 
was  never  so  glad  in  my  life.  I  said  to  my  Mas- 
ter, "  Just  tell  me  what  to  say,  and  I'll  say  it." 
The  joy  of  the  preacher  came  upon  me  mightily. 
I  told  them  they  could  easily  see  I  was  an  entire 
stranger:  I  had  no  idea  what  sort  of  oratory 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  listening  to :  I  could  not 
even  see  any  of  them  quite  distinctly:  but  I 
wanted  to  try  and  let  them  know  that  I  loved 
them;  that  my  great  longing  was  to  help  them 
each  and  all  to  a  true  understanding  of  my  Sav- 
iour, Jesus,  the  only  name  under  heaven  given 
among  men,  or  other  created  beings,  whereby  we 
must  be  saved.  "  He  is  your  Shepherd,"  I  said ; 
"  you  are  his  sheep.  You  are  not  the  Devil's 
own.  You  belong  to  Jesus.  He  is  seeking  for 
each  one  of  you  through  all  this  wilderness  of 


70  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

sin,  through  all  these  centuries  of  your  wander- 
ing until  He  finds  you.  Won't  you  let  Him 
find  you  and  save  you  just  now?  How  much 
longer  are  you  going  to  keep  Him  seeking?  He 
is  bound  to  save  you  before  you  get  through  with 
Him.  You  know  you  want  to  be  saved,  too.  Are 
you  not  nearly  tired  of  all  this?  You  are  miss- 
ing all  the  good  times.  I  would  like  to  tell  you 
we  are  having  good  times  around  the  throne  of 
God.  We  had  good  times  in  the  love  of  God 
back  on  earth,  and  we  tried  hard  to  make  some 
of  you  see  it,  and  understand,  and  crave  a  part  in 
our  blessing.  You  lost  all  your  earthly  life, 
those  of  you  who  had  an  earthly  life;  and  now 
you  are  fast  losing  your  eternity.  I  begin  to 
perceive  that  I  have  seen  some  of  you  before. 
With  some  of  you  I  have  pleaded,  although  not 
half  urgently  enough,  I  know,  that  you  would 
make  your  peace  with  God.  I  cannot  just  call 
your  names  yet ;  old  memories  stir  somewhat  con- 
fusedly within  me;  but  I  have  a  feeling  that  in 
one  place  and  another  I  have  warned  you  of  what 
you  have  come  to  here.  Others,  no  doubt,  have 
had  their  warnings  from  faithful  lips.  I  can- 
not believe  the  memory  of  those  dear  old  days 
has  quite  died  out  of  any  of  your  souls.  Go 
back  in  thought  to  that  plain  meeting  house  where 
the  proffer  of  God's  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ  was 
often  held  out  to  you.  Look  around  and  see  the 
familiar  faces.  Some  of  them  were  far  from  per- 
fect  Christians,   no   doubt;  but   they   cared   for 


WITH  NEW  POWER  71 

your  soul,  and  some  of  them  earnestly  endeavored 
to  save  you.  Think  of  the  best  men  and  women 
you  knew.  Wouldn't  you  like  to  meet  them 
again?  Brother,  it's  not  too  late,  maybe,  yet. 
Think  of  your  kind  teacher  in  the  Bible  school. 
Think  of  one  or  two  who  passed  the  communion 
plate  and  cup  in  the  little  country  church.  They 
never  wished  to  pass  you  by.  They  would  far 
rather  have  you  with  them  now  in  heaven.  Think 
of  the  faithful  man  who  over  and  over  gave  you 
the  simple  Gospel  message  from  the  pulpit,  and 
who  often  spoke  to  you  so  kindly  to  win  you  to 
Christ.  Wouldn't  you  like  to  be  back  in  the  dear 
old  days,  and  have  that  offer  of  salvation  made  to 
you  again?  Recall  the  time  when  you  were  most 
deeply  impressed;  when  your  soul's  fate  hung 
trembling  in  the  balance  of  indecision.  A  light 
hand  rested  on  your  shoulder,  an  earnest  voice  was 
pleading  low  with  you  to  close  with  God's  offer 
of  mercy,  to  make  your  choice  of  Christ  as  your 
Saviour,  and  make  heaven  your  home.  You  see  it 
all  the  more  clearly  now :  the  choice  you  were  mak- 
ing, the  issue  that  was  at  stake.  All  the  tremen- 
dous reality  of  perdition  is  familiar  to  you  now. 
If  you  could  put  yourself  back  in  that  same  place 
where  you  had  the  chance  to  choose,  and  where,  I 
won't  say  your  decision,  but  your  indecision, 
turned  you  away  from  the  narrow  way  that  leads 
to  life;  if  you  could  just  sit  down  in  that  same 
meeting  house  bench,  and  hear  those  same  lips, 
long  silent  now  in  death,  pleading  with  you ;  what 


72  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

answer  would  you  make  now  to  their  appeal? 
With  all  hell  driving  you,  wouldn't  you  get  up 
quickly  and  go  forward,  crying  to  God  for 
mercy  on  your  sinful  soul?  Friend!  I  came 
here  to  make  the  same  offer  and  the  same  appeal. 
God  sent  me,  or  I  never  could  have  got  here. 
He  says,  '  I  am  the  Lord ;  I  change  not.'  His 
mercy  endureth  forever.  He  would  have  all  to 
be  saved  and  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
He  has  no  pleasure  in  the  soul-death  of  the 
wicked,  but  rather  that  he  should  turn  from  his 
wicked  way  and  live.  He  has  declared  His  pur- 
pose that  as  in  Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ  all  shall 
be  made  alive.  But  He  cannot,  will  not,  save  you 
against  your  will.  He  still  stretches  out  His  arms 
of  love  and  mercy  to  you  each,  and  cries,  *  Turn, 
for  why  will  ye  die ! '  Greater  love  no  imagina- 
tion can  conceive.  If  God's  offers  of  mercy  had 
ended  for  you  with  the  accident  of  physical  death, 
you  might  have  found  a  flaw  in  His  love.  But 
these  offers  are  extended  to  you  in  the  ab3'ss  of 
moral  death.  Even  in  the  throes  of  perdition, 
you  can  hear  His  voice  pleading  with  your  soul. 
You  are  weary  with  the  toil  and  turmoil  of  hell, 
and  He  calls  to  you,  *  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
are  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest.'  How  do  I  know  that?  Why,  I  can  begin 
to  see  it  in  your  soul-faces.  Perhaps  you  are 
none  of  you  all  bad.  If  you  still  have  soul 
enough  left  to  wish  for  better  things,  that  shows 
God's  Holy  Spirit  is  dealing  with  you.     There 


WHY  WILL  YE  DIE?  73 

is  a  better  nature  that  won't  let  you  rest  in  evil. 
All  heaven  is  calling  you  away  from  this  state. 
Will  you  not  listen  to  heaven's  call?  That  dear 
mother  who  nursed  you  and  taught  you  to  pray 
is  calling  you  away  from  here.  The  wife  who 
made  a  happy  home  for  you  once,  who  prayed 
for  you  every  night,  and  cheered  you  every 
day  —  I  have  a  special  message  to  one  man's 
soul  somewhere  out  here  from  the  dearest  wife 
God  could  find  to  bless  him  with.  She  told  me  to 
look  Albert  up  the  first  thing.  Perhaps  each  of 
you  has  some  such  dear  tie  drawing  you  away  to- 
ward heaven.  Oh,  yield  to  its  drawing  just  now ! 
You  thought  it  was  a  man's  part,  perhaps,  to 
hold  out  against  the  loving  prayers  that  were 
often  lifted  to  God  for  your  salvation  in  your 
little  earthly  life.  Haven't  you  been  stubborn 
long  enough  to  satisfy  that  whim?  Haven't  you 
suffered  enough;  haven't  you  inflicted  loss  and 
unsatisfied  longing  enough?  Tell  me  just  now 
that  you  give  in  to  God's  love.  You  do  not  need 
to  lift  a  hand,  for  I  can  see  into  your  hearts  now 
and  they  are  troubled.  Come  close,  close,  close! 
and  we  will  pray  together.  It  isn't  too  late  to 
pray  so  long  as  you  can  wish  to  pray.  Praying 
itself  is  heaven  ;  oh  !  come  and  try  to  pray." 

It  was  wonderful  how  clear  and  distinct  thou- 
sands of  those  lost  souls  came  out  around,  above, 
beneath,  to  the  vision  of  love,  as  I  went  on  talk- 
ing to  them.  The  thrill  of  apprehending  their 
million-fold  play  of  thought  gave  me  inspiration 


74  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

such  as  I  had  never  experienced  before.  Even 
in  the  earthly  ministry  often  the  sermon  had 
come,  half  of  it,  from  the  faces  of  the  congrega- 
tion :  the  brightening  eyes,  the  alert  attitudes,  the 
response  of  varying  expression  gave  a  certain  in- 
terchange of  thought  between  speaker  and  hear- 
ers very  helpful  to  the  former.  But  here  I  found 
myself  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  sphere  of  inter- 
responsive  thoughts.  I  could  watch  the  play  of 
the  whole  electric  current,  and  with  my  finger 
upon  its  key,  see  its  spark  flit  from  soul  to  soul. 
I  was  distinctly  conscious  of  the  struggle  of  con- 
tending impulses  in  each.  I  began  to  realize,  as 
I  was  making  the  concluding  appeal,  that  this  was 
to  be  the  chief  drawback,  although  the  chief  de- 
light, in  dealing  with  the  crowd  in  public  evangel- 
ism in  hell,  that  no  soul  had  its  needful  privacy 
to  easily  make  an  independent  decision.  Even  far 
more  than  in  congregations  on  earth,  each  was 
under  the  eye  of  the  other.  The  glow  of  soft- 
ened feeling  in  one  soul  was  directly  subjected  to 
the  chill  of  reluctance  in  other  souls  around.  I 
cried  to  God  for  power  to  move  the  whole  mass ; 
for  it  seemed  that  only  so  could  any  be  won. 
There  were  moments  as  they  listened  when  the 
Holy  Spirit's  power  would  sweep  over  the  audi- 
ence, turning  up  the  bright  side  of  their  poor 
dark  souls  to  view,  like  the  leaves  of  a  poplar 
forest  turned  in  a  wind,  and  I  would  almost  look 
to  see  the  whole  mass  converted  at  once:  then 
there  would  come  a  wavering  as  by  some  counter- 


THE  FIRST  CONVERT  75 

current,  and  I  could  hear  in  soul  some  sneer  like 
a  serpent's  hiss  ripping  through  the  crowd. 
When  I  made  my  appeal  for  penitents  to  come 
near,  the  pull  and  counter-pull  grew  so  tense,  my 
own  soul  seemed  ready  to  be  drawn  asunder:  and 
when  they  began  to  drift  heavily,  despairingly 
away,  I  could  not  bear  to  witness  the  result ;  but 
blotting  all  else  out  from  consciousness,  as  though 
I  hid  my  face  in  my  hands,  I  prayed  to  the  om- 
nipotent Redeemer  at  least  to  save  one. 

Something  touched  me  softly,  timidly ;  I  could 
hardly  have  been  sure  of  it,  only  the  old-time 
thrill  of  the  soul  winner  in  his  moment  of  success 
came  with  the  touch,  even  more  bewildering  in  its 
sudden  joy  than  ever  before.  Some  one  was 
praying  close  beside  me.  I  recognized  Sadie  just 
by  that  timid,  appealing  touch:  there  was  still 
something  of  the  innocence  of  the  little  child 
with  golden  curls  and  soft  blue  eyes  with  whom 
I  had  played  often  in  my  boyhood.  In  a  mo- 
ment, by  one  wonderful  flash  of  self-revelation, 
she  laid  bare  before  me  the  whole  pitiful  history 
of  those  after  years  and  thus  much  of  eternity. 
I  saw  her  drawn  away  from  God  by  her  misplaced, 
mistaken  love  for  Ecchols,  saw  her  learning  doubt 
from  him,  getting  the  alcohol  and  opium  habits 
from  him,  losing  her  better  self  in  the  toleration 
for  his  fantastic  vices  which  developed  into  par- 
ticipation in  them,  not  because  she  cared  for  vi- 
cious gratification,  but  just  because  she  loved 
Hatchet  and  clung  to  him  utterly,  sacrificing  re- 


76  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

ligion,  purity,  heaven,  all.  I  saw  for  the  first 
time  the  inner-heart  history  of  her  life's  crowning 
tragedy  when  her  husband  deserted  her:  saw  her 
soul  groping  helplessly,  piteously,  like  a  blind 
puppy  left  by  its  mother.  I  saw  those  who  cared 
for  her  necessities  as  she  pined  and  died  talking 
with  her  often  of  God's  mercy  and  forgiveness, 
yet  receiving  always  the  same  answer  that  she 
would  not  care  to  seek  heaven  if  he  was  not  to  be 
there.  Then  she  tried  to  show  me  her  life  in  hell. 
Dimly  and  bewildered,  I  followed  the  zigzag  of 
her  wanderings  in  search  of  her  lost  one,  down 
into  bottomless  chasms  of  evil,  along  starless  can- 
yons of  doubt;  ever  groping  wearily  after, 
hampering,  clogging,  yet  never  quite  sharing  his 
life.  And  now  at  the  end  of  that  terrible  j  ourney 
about  hell,  here  the  poor  little  thing  was  sob- 
bing out  her  heart's  first  real  cry  to  God.  "  I 
am  so  lonely ! "  she  cried  over  and  over.  "  Oh !  I 
am  so  lonely !  " 

"  Are  you  just  lonely  still  for  Hatchet,  Sadie," 
I  asked,  "  or  are  you  truly  lonely  for  God?  " 

"  I  am  lonely  for  a  little  love,"  she  answered. 
"  You  said  in  your  sermon,  or  you  made  us  feel, 
that  God  loves  us  still.  Do  you  think  He  can 
truly  love  an  ugly  little  waif  of  hell  like  me  ?  " 

"  It  is  only  the  smut  and  scars  and  wrinkles 
of  sin  that  are  ugly,  Sadie,"  I  said.  "  God  sees 
beneath  these  the  soul  of  my  innocent  playmate 
of  long  ago.  If  you  really  wish  His  love  and 
forgiveness,  ask  Him  for  it,  and  vou  can  know 


THE  BLESSED  CHANCE  77 

that  you  have  it  right  now.  The  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  God's  Son,  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  The 
balm  of  His  grace  will  smooth  away  all  the  scars 
and  wrinkles.  It  will  not  be  hard  for  Jesus  to 
make  your  soul  young  and  beautiful  again. 
Don't  you  remember  how  you  and  Hatchet  and  I 
used  to  make  play  games  out  of  the  stories  we  had 
read :  Ali  Baba  and  the  *■  open  sesame  '  cave  of 
the  Forty  Robbers,  Beauty  and  the  Beast,  Rip 
van  Winkle,  and  all  the  others?  Sometimes  life 
itself  appears  to  me  in  the  nature  of  such  a  little 
game  of  transformations.  Just  as  we  used  to  act 
out  the  various  metamorphoses  of  the  Arabian 
Nights  and  the  fairy  tales  in  our  childish  play, 
so  lives  are  transformed  under  the  spell  of  sin's 
witchcraft  or  the  restoring  power  of  God's  won- 
derful grace.  You  are  coming  back  to  your 
natural  shape  even  while  you  pray." 

"  But  I've  been  under  the  spell  so  long,"  she 
moaned.  "  For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  it 
doesn't  seem  as  though  I  have  been  Sadie  at  all, 
but  some  other  woman.  There  are  so  many 
wrong  steps  to  retrace !  How  can  I  hope  to  find 
my  way  back  from  it  all  and  reach  heaven  at 
last?" 

"  You  have  been  going  wrong,"  I  replied, 
"  ever  since  you  put  my  old  friend  Hatchet  Ecch- 
ols  in  the  place  of  God.  You  will  get  right  just 
as  you  put  God  in  his  right  place.  A  thousand 
years  are  with  God  as  one  day.  It  isn't  the  length 
of  your  repentance  or  penance  that  will  count. 


78  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

He  can  undo  in  one  moment  Satan's  evil  work 
upon  your  soul  during  the  whole  of  those  long, 
wrong  years.  Yes,  I  know  you  have  to  reap  what 
you  have  sown,  but  you  do  not  have  to  reap  it 
as  a  chain-gang  convict:  you  may  reap  as  an 
angel  of  light.  It  is  all  in  giving  yourself  up 
right  now  and  forever  utterly  to  God.  Will  you 
do  it?  Even  if  He  tells  you  to  leave  Hatchet 
in  hell,  will  you  give  yourself  into  the  care  of 
Jesus  now?  " 

"  Do  you  think  He  will  have  to  separate  me 
from  my  husband  for  always  ?  "  she  asked  trem- 
bling. 

I  replied  that  I  hoped  not,  and  that  I  was  sure 
God  would  not  have  her  love  Hatchet  less,  only 
differently.  Idolatrous  infatuation  must  give 
place  to  Christ-like  pity.  She  could  pray  for 
him  always.  God  might  even  use  her  as  the  sur- 
est missionary  to  win  her  husband  back  to  Him- 
self. The  fascination  which  she  had  failed  to  ex- 
ercise continually  upon  him  as  a  compliant  slave 
might  yet  be  given  her  as  God's  angel  of  mercy  to 
his  restless  soul.  "  All  this  is  for  us  to  know  in 
God's  good  time,"  I  admitted ;  "  all  we  need  now 
is  just  to  love  to  let  Him  do  as  He  pleases  with  us. 
It's  the  only  way  we  can  feel,  and  really  pray. 
Will  you  ask  Him  to  help  you  do  that,  poor  little 
girl?" 

"  Dear  Jesus,"  Sadie  prayed  for  answer,  "  I 
am  so  tired !  I  am  so  ashamed  to  have  You  look 
at  me.     Nat  says  You  are  willing  to  take  me  just 


A  GOOD  PLACE  FOR  PRAYER   79 

as  I  am.  Oh  cover  me  up  quick  under  the  robe 
of  Thy  mercy.  Wash  the  sin-stains  off  my  soul 
with  Thy  precious  blood.  I  have  been  ashamed 
in  my  soul  for  so  long!  I  can't  bear  for  any 
more  people  to  see  me  looking  like  this.  Oh !  I'm 
so  tired  sinning  for  what  I  thought  was  love. 
Dear  Jesus,  pity  my  poor  husband  and  save  him. 
Let  me  help  save  him,  if  I  can  ever  be  worthy. 
Oh  Saviour,  I  am  so  tired  and  lonely !  Can  You 
love  me?  Dear  Saviour,  do  anything  You  please 
with  me,  only  forgive  me  and  love  me.  Dear 
Jesus,  bless  Nat  for  coming  to  save  me.  Help 
him  to  save  a  great  many  out  of  this  awful  place. 
Help  him  to  find  the  one  that  is  on  his  thoughts 
just  now.  Never  mind  about  me.  I'm  willing  to 
stay  in  hell,  if  only  You  will  stay  with  me." 

It  was  very  wonderful:  I  could  hear  her  soul 
talking  to  our  Saviour  and  hear  Him  replying  dis- 
tinctly to  her  just  as  when  waiting  at  a  rural 
telephone  with  ear  to  the  receiver,  we  have  some- 
times found  it  necessary  to  listen  for  a  moment  to 
the  conversation  of  others.  This  is  the  inner 
thrill  of  heaven,  to  receive  God's  response  to 
prayer  quite  as  plain  and  clear  in  its  articulation 
as  all  our  conversation  with  each  other.  In  the 
flesh-life  this  response,  though  equally  real,  came 
to  us  wrapped  in  the  mystery  of  spiritual  exalta- 
tion, and  somewhat  vague  in  its  contrast  with  the 
physical  media  of  communication ;  speech,  ges- 
ture, facial  expression,  writing,  printing,  artistic 
illustration,  graphophony,  telephony,   signaling, 


80  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

telegraphy,  even  the  wireless.  We  were  so  sense- 
bound  ;  all  of  these  tedious,  indirect,  physical  ways 
of  conveying  thought  often  impressed  us  more 
definitely,  if  not  more  powerfully  than  the  direct 
vibrant  touch  of  God's  over-soul,  in  His  ready, 
tender,  faithful  response  to  every  thought  and 
wish  of  honest  prayer.  But  in  the  spirit  life  of 
heaven  we  not  only  see  as  we  are  seen  and  know 
as  we  are  known,  but  we  hear  and  apprehend 
God's  thoughts  directly  even  as  our  thoughts  have 
all  our  lives  been  heard  by  Him.  The  power  of 
apprehending  God,  in  which  we  have  been  grow- 
ing as  we  grew  in  grace  on  earth,  becomes  the 
dominant  fact  of  consciousness  in  the  round  of 
heaven's  expanded  life.  This  is  life  eternal,  just 
to  know  God. 

But  here  in  hell  I  heard  for  the  first  time  a 
penitent  soul  in  the  ecstacy  of  its  first  joy  talk- 
ing with  God,  and  caught  distinctly  each  reply 
of  comforting  endearment  and  entire  reconcili- 
ation. It  was  only  one  little  lost  sheep  nestling 
wistfully  to  the  Shepherd's  side:  just  one  poor 
simpleton  of  sin;  but  as  a  demonstration  of  the 
theory  of  soul-winning  with  which  I  had  started 
out  for  hell,  Sadie's  conversion  was  enough. 
Heaven  itself  had  yielded  no  joy  like  this. 
"  Master,"  I  said,  "  if  it  is  just  this  one,  and  then 
in  the  course  of  a  century  or  so  one  other,  I  am 
willing  to  keep  it  up  while  hell  lasts." 

But  I  was  already  conscious  of  another  spirit 
hovering   near,   approaching   and   then   receding 


HELL'S  DEAR  JOY  81 

with  bound  and  rebound  in  a  most  confusing  man- 
ner, as  though  desiring  by  turns  to  interview  me 
and  then  to  get  as  far  as  possible  away  from  me. 
I  said  to  Sadie,  "  I  am  not  going  to  leave  you, 
little  girl.  I  will  keep  you  in  consciousness,  so 
that  you  need  only  call.  But  there  are  others  for 
whom  I  must  seek.  Joy  asked  me  to  find  her 
husband.  You  heard,  no  doubt,  that  she  married 
Albert  Detwiler.  Yes,  I  got  married,  too.  You 
must  know  Jeanie.  I  only  wish  she  were  here 
right  now.     You  need  a  sister  woman  to  — " 

"  Is  that  you,  dear  Boy?  "  came  a  cheery  spir- 
it's voice.  "  I  wondered  how  far  you  would  get 
on  your  mission  without  calling  for  your  girl's 
help.  And  after  all  the  remarkable  expeditions 
on  which  you  have  led  me  in  days  gone  by,  I  must 
say  that  this  — " 

Then  she  became  aware  of  Sadie.  I  waited 
wonderingly  to  see  how  she  would  be  affected. 
Women  are  often  so  severe  toward  each  other :  and 
here  was  a  soul  shrunken,  withered,  haggard  with 
its  century  and  three-quarters  of  God-denying 
love  and  longing,  only  just  beginning  to  change 
under  God's  touch. 

But  Jeanie  took  her  up  with  a  tender  embrace. 
"  Oh !  you  poor,  dear  child !  "  she  cried.  "  Oh ! 
you  precious  penitent !  "  And  as  Sadie  tried  to 
show  her  all  the  past,  as  she  had  showed  it  to  me, 
Jeanie  only  soothed  her  more  compassionately. 
Instead  of  shrinking  from  her,  she  drew  her 
closer,  and  with  tears  of  the  soul,  the  two  women 


82  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

clung  to  one  another  rejoicing,  grieving,  pray- 
ing, planning  for  the  future  with  a  volubility  and 
versatility  of  which  only  women  spirits  are  capa- 
ble. 


A  DIFFICULT  RECOGNITION        83 


CHAPTER  V 

Feeling  relieved  about  Sadie,  I  could  now  turn 
less  divided  attention  to  the  unrecognized  spirit 
which  had  been  gyrating  so  strangely  hither  and 
away  in  our  neighborhood  all  this  time.  With  a 
strong  outreach  of  sympathy  I  managed  to  clasp 
and  hold  him  on  his  next  near  approach,  and  in 
spite  of  his  continual  perplexing  change  of  color 
and  shape,  I  began  to  feel  that  I  knew  him  by 
the  very  mark  of  his  unknowableness.  I  could 
never  quite  apprehend  Albert  Detwiler  when  we 
were  boys  and  young  men  together.  There  were 
so  many  of  him,  I  found  myself  continually  puz- 
zled, in  my  slow  downrightness,  to  know  which 
was  the  real  Albert.  He  was  so  versatile,  so 
clever,  so  handsome,  so  everything  that  I  never 
could  be ;  there  were  years  when  we  were  growing 
up  together  in  which  it  never  entered  into  my 
heart  to  believe  that  Joy  could  possibly  prefer 
me  to  her  fascinating  boy  cousin,  and  the  only 
thing  that  aroused  my  resentment  about  him  was 
that  I  never  could  feel  that  he  loved  her  enough. 
I  loved  this  girl  utterly,  adoringly,  from  sheer 
compelling  power  of  destiny,  asking  nothing  in 
return.  There  was  no  light  joke  or  shallow  pleas- 
antry possible  in  what  lay  for  the  most  part  too 
deep  for  words  within  the  heart  of  my  heart, 
which  was  hers.  I  could  often  have  been  angry 
with  Albert  for  his  flippant,  talkative  way  with 


84  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Joy ;  only  he  bewildered  me  so  by  his  many  moods 
that  I  could  never  get  angry  quick  enough. 

There  came  a  summer  morning,  Joy  was 
turned  eighteen  and  I  was  home  on  my  second 
vacation  from  the  university:  the  time  and  place 
are  as  distinct  in  my  memory  after  the  second 
century  has  nearly  gone  by  as  though  it  were 
yesterday:  it  was  at  a  bend  in  the  valley  road 
leading  down  to  the  village  where  we  stopped  for 
a  moment,  Joy  and  I,  under  the  shade  of  a  maple 
that  grew  just  inside  the  road  fence.  Joy  let 
me  retie  the  lace  of  her  low  shoe,  and  when  I 
looked  up  she  said,  "  Do  you  know,  Nat,  if  any 
one  should  ever  win  my  heart,  it  would  not  be  one 
who  impressed  me  in  other  ways,  but  it  would  be 
the  one  that  loved  me  more  than  all  the  world." 

After  that  Albert  rather  faded  into  the  back- 
ground of  our  life,  and  he  was  not  so  much  of  a 
problem  in  my  thoughts,  until  I  heard  that  Joy 
had  married  him. 

"  Albert,"  I  said,  as  I  clung  to  his  swaying, 
changing  shape  in  hell,  "  I  am  very  glad  to  have 
found  you,  and  I  thank  you  for  coming  to  meet 
me.  You  were  the  first  object  of  my  search  in 
coming  here.  Joy  wished  me  to  find  you  and  to 
tell  you  that  she  wants  you  in  heaven." 

"  Heaven  ?  "  he  answered.  "  This  is  heaven. 
Good  is  all:  heaven  is  all.  There  is  no  other 
place  but  heaven." 

"  Shade  of  Mrs.  Eddy !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  Where 
did  you  get  hold  of  that?  " 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AT  LARGE      85 

"  I  have  been  converted  since  I  thought  I  died," 
Albert  declared  impressively. 

This  was  news  with  a  welcome  sound.  I  was 
only  mystified  to  understand  why  we  hadn't  seen 
anything  of  him  in  heaven.  I  didn't  wish  to  ar- 
gue with  him.  "  Why  do  you  stay  away  from 
Joy  ?  "  I  asked.     "  She  is  lonely  for  you." 

"  I  am  not  going  back  where  I  have  once  been 
snubbed,"  Albert  answered.  "  I  was  near  you  all 
once,  and  you  would  not  notice  me.  You  went 
right  on  with  your  life.  You  were  all  very  much 
absorbed  in  each  other.  I  tried  passionately,  be- 
seechingly to  attract  your  attention.  You  paid 
no  more  attention  to  me  than  if  I  were  not  in  the 
universe.  Ha !  ha  !  ha !  how  you  stare !  "  he  cried, 
and  hell  echoed  with  harsh  laughter.  "  You  act 
the  thing  out  well,  or  else  you  are  still  under  the 
spell  of  your  old  narrow  creed.  Your  sermon 
awhile  back  sounded  for  all  the  world  like  that 
first  summer  when  you  were  out  from  the  semi- 
nary and  tried  to  preach  in  your  father's  former 
pulpit.  You  and  Joy  were  sweet  on  each  other 
then.  Man,  haven't  you  learned  anything  yet? 
You  come  around  and  insult  a  million  or  more 
people  talking  about  hell.  Now,  Nat,"  he  con- 
tinued, with  one  of  his  sudden,  perplexing  changes 
of  tone,  "  I'd  like  to  help  you  out  of  this  gloomy 
delusion.  I  feel  a  benevolent  interest  in  you.  I 
am  incapable  of  bearing  malice  even  for  the  great- 
est wrongs.  There  isn't  really  any  such  place  as 
hell.     God    wouldn't    be    good;    I    mean    Good 


86  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

wouldn't  be  good  and  have  any  hell  in  its  world. 
Look  around  you.  Hell  is  supposed  to  be  a 
prison.  Where  are  the  walls?  Can't  we  go 
where  we  like?  How  long  is  it  going  to  take  you 
to  get  away  from  your  dark  superstitions? 
Everything  goes  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian Science  position.  What  we  thought  was  a 
body  and  its  ailments  is  gone.  Spirit  is  all. 
What  you  think  looks  like  sin  in  us  (of  course 
you  can't  see  any  in  yourself),  why,  it's  just  the 
lingering  delusion  of  carnality.  There  are  long 
shadows  cast  by  the  sunrise.  I  suppose  you  have 
come  out  of  your  thoughts  of  disease  before  this. 
Now  come  out  of  your  thoughts  of  sin  and  of 
hell,  and  there  won't  be  any  for  you  any  more." 

Then  he  changed  character  suddenly  again  and 
added,  lowering  and  bellowing  defiantly  into  my 
soul,  "  And  see  here,  you  give  me  back  my  wife. 
She's  mine:  she  ain't  yours:  she  jilted  you:  she 
married  me:  you've  got  another  one:  ain't  that 
enough?  What  do  you  want  with  two.  Is  that 
what  you  call  heaven?  Oh,  you  saints  in  para- 
dise !  Oh,  you  lovely,  sweet,  innocent  creatures ! 
Ha!  ha!  ha!  ha!" 

I  was  more  disturbed  than  I  could  have  sup- 
posed it  possible  for  a  redeemed  soul,  kept  by  the 
power  of  God,  to  be.  I  had  never  heard  such 
laughter.  What  I  had  sometimes  heard  in  pass- 
ing Tippleton  saloon  doors  on  summer  Saturday 
nights  was  subdued  and  modulated  in  compari- 
son.    The  laughter  I  had  been  hearing  in  heaven 


THE  LAUGHTER-TEST  87 

is  deliciously  musical  like  an  orchestra  of  Swiss 
bells  and  chiming  glasses,  with  pedal  base  accom- 
paniment, tinkling,  shimmering,  rioting  up  and 
down  the  gamut  far  beyond  the  fifth  and  sixth 
octaves  from  middle  range,  replete  with  wondrous 
double  meanings,  exquisite  odd  contrasts  of  feel- 
ing. But  this  hell-laughter  was  sadder  to  hear 
than  any  wail  of  woe.  It  went  through  my  soul 
with  a  jar,  with  a  rumble,  a  screech,  a  groan,  a 
cackle,  a  bray,  a  hoot,  a  growl,  a  cough,  a  snort, 
a  wheeze,  a  crunch,  a  scrape,  a  jangle,  a  crash,  a 
shriek,  a  howl,  a  curse,  a  squawk,  a  roar,  a  loon's 
cry,  a  catterwaul  of  unearthly  discordant  male- 
diction that  made  me  shiver  and  shrink.  Startled 
by  Albert's  challenge,  it  occurred  to  me  for  the 
first  time  to  take  my  bearings  since  coming  to 
hell;  and  truly  enough,  the  illimitable  universe 
lay  six  square  about  me  just  as  before.  As  a 
matter  of  experiment,  I  tried  the  talisman  of 
wishing,  and  found  myself  one  moment  in  heaven 
and  the  next  in  hell.  A  flash  of  glory,  a  burst  of 
song,  was  succeeded  instantly  by  bodeful  gloom 
and  hideous  pandemonium.  Only  I  noticed  that 
I  was  not  conscious  of  Albert's  presence  during 
the  first  interval ;  and  I  had  to  fumble  and  clutch 
for  him  in  a  dazed  way  on  my  return. 

"  What  made  you  do  that?  "  he  exclaimed  some- 
what angrily.  "  Why  do  you  try  to  turn  your 
back  on  me  while  we  are  talking?  Are  you  so 
ashamed?  " 

"  I  have  been  back  in  heaven  a  moment,"  I 


88  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

answered  apologetically.  "  The  contrast  makes 
me  blink  and  it  is  hard  to  catch  what  you  say." 

"  Nonsense !  "  Albert  exclaimed.  "  It  was  only 
a  minute ;  I  had  you  in  view  all  the  time ;  and  the 
same  star  was  at  the  zenith  the  whole  while." 

"  Nevertheless,"  I  replied  more  calmly,  "  I  was 
in  another  world  infinitely  distant  from  this  and 
into  which  you  in  your  unrepentant  state  can 
never  possibly  enter.  Like  Dives  in  his  torment, 
you  seem  to  be  permitted  some  marvelous  power 
to  see  us  now  and  then;  but  you  really  can  have 
no  just  apperception  of  heaven,  or  you  could  not 
possibly  be  content  to  mope  in  hell  without  crying 
to  God,  if  possibly  He  may  forgive  you  and  open 
up  a  way  of  escape." 

Albert  laughed  more  mirthlessly  than  before. 
"  Do  you  think,"  he  asked,  "  that  I'd  enjoy  being 
around  in  your  heaven  to  play  second  fiddle  to 
you  with  my  own  wife?  No;  that  would  be  hell, 
for  sure." 

I  could  have  been  righteously  provoked  with 
Albert,  if  I  had  not  pitied  him  so  intensely.  I 
labored  to  explain  to  him  what  were  the  relations 
of  the  sexes  in  heaven :  that  we  neither  marry  nor 
are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of 
God:  that  the  sex  of  spirits  is  largely  a  matter 
of  inherent  or  acquired  disposition,  some  who  had 
been  tabernacled  in  women's  bodies  finding  them- 
selves men  in  soul  in  the  glorified  state,  or  vice 
versa,  and  that  with  no  disparagement  to  either 
sex :  how  some  married  couples  find  themselves  of 


SEX  IN  HEAVEN  89 

the  same  sex  in  heaven,  just  good  chums  or  twin 
sisters,  and  very  much  relieved  by  the  change. 
"  After  all  has  been  said  and  sung,"  I  insisted, 
"  the  fondest  wife  on  earth  was  only  a  dearer  kind 
of  friend.  She  was  just  '  my  sister,  my  spouse.' 
In  heaven  all  our  friendships  are  more  intimate, 
more  confidential  than  the  closest  tie  of  earth." 

"  A  sort  of  universal  free  love,  I  reckon," 
sneered  Albert. 

"  Just  as  free  and  as  frank  as  the  pure,  inno- 
cent love  of  brothers  and  sisters,"  I  answered. 
"  Redeemed  spirits  are  drawn  to  one  another  in 
the  glow  of  immortal  youth.  They  take  on  at 
will  forms  of  exquisite  grace  and  loveliness,  of 
strength  and  dignity.  Each  higher  thought, 
emotion,  impulse,  adds  shape  and  color  to  a  per- 
fection that  is  ever  unfolding.  The  life  of 
heaven  is  a  never-failing  idyl.  The  complex  ele- 
ments, the  infinite  variety,  the  free  spirit  of  its 
cosmopolitan  make-up  lead  to  unending  romance 
of  a  platonic  sort ;  but  there  can  be  no  bitterness 
of  jealousy  where  every  soul  is  yielded  to  God's 
will,  and  where  soul  meets  soul  in  the  naked  inno- 
cence which  sees  as  we  are  seen  and  knows  as  we 
are  known." 

Albert  listened  quietly  now;  but  his  soul  dark- 
ened as  he  answered,  "  Nat,  you  always  were  in 
for  a  general  soft  time;  but  I  tell  you  I  want 
Alice  all  to  myself." 

"  See  here,  Albert,"  I  said,  "  you  are  forget- 
ting that  your  marriage  vows  were  only  for  the 


90  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

mortal  life.  You  have  no  claim  on  Joy  now; 
except  as  you  can  demonstrate  a  superior  affinity 
to  that  of  others.  She  has  told  us  of  late  how 
often  in  your  wedded  life  she  implored  you  to 
make  your  peace  with  God  and  share  with  her  the 
dearest  hopes  of  heaven.  You  were  profoundly 
respectful,  off  and  on,  toward  her  religion  in 
your  manner;  but  in  the  real  bent  of  your  life 
you  treated  it  with  contempt.  You  deliberately 
took  your  chances  on  being  separated  from  your 
wife  in  eternity ;  you  were  cowed  by  the  possible 
sneers  of  the  other  men;  you  went  after  the  tri- 
fling satisfaction  of  earth's  hollow  popularity. 
You  thought  it  was  effeminate  to  have  any  defi- 
nite views  on  the  subject  of  God  and  eternity. 
You  dallied  with  all  the  issues  that  were  really 
worth  settling.  Now  you  find  that  between  you 
and  her  there  is  a  gulf  fixed.  You  might  go 
right  through  her  and  you  couldn't  attract  her 
attention.  She  is  sorry  for  you,  she  wishes  for 
you;  but  she  is  entirely  unconscious  of  you,  for 
you  are  not  of  her  world.  But  her  world  is  open 
to  you,  old  fellow,  if  you  will  just  get  down  to 
reality  and  hold  yourself  one  thing  long  enough 
to  tell  God  you  are  sorry  for  being  such  a  fool. 
Come  now,  you  must  listen  to  the  truth  spoken  in 
love,"  I  cried,  darting  after  him  as  he  almost 
slipped  away  from  me  into  hell's  abyss.  "  I  have 
no  desire  to  keep  your  wife  from  you.  Be  a  man. 
Get  right  with  God.  Win  heaven.  Win  the 
inner  heaven  of  Joy's  love.     Be  her  husband  in 


THE  VALUE  PUT  ON  HER  91 

soul.  You  will  find  her  as  uninvolved  in  her 
stainless,  flawless  loyalty  as  on  the  day  you  led 
her  to  the  altar.  I  have  simply  loved  her  a  little 
longer  and  more  dearly  in  heaven  than  I  had  al- 
ready loved  her,  day  by  day,  on  earth.  There 
is  no  regret  in  either  of  our  hearts  for  the  past. 
Jeanie  made  me  a  better  wife,  in  God's  provi- 
dence, than  ever  Joy  could  have  made.  She  man- 
aged me  more  deftly,  and  got  more  out  of  me 
for  God.  She  understands  me  better  to-day. 
There  was  nothing  in  our  love's  young  dream, 
Joy's  and  mine,  to  spoil  your  married  life  with 
her.  Most  of  the  time  I  ,did  not  even  know  where 
you  were  living ;  but  if  it  had  been  next  door,  you 
would  have  been  given  no  reason  to  feel  uncom- 
fortable in  the  steady,  matter-of-fact  relations  of 
kindliness  which  might  have  existed  between  us. 
Only  in  our  inner  souls  we  would  each  have  known 
and  agreed  that  God  meant  us  to  love  each  other 
always.  Many  a  day  I  had  not  one  thought  of 
her ;  and  yet  I  would  dream  of  her  that  night,  and 
tell  the  dream  to  Jeanie  the  next  morning.  Jeanie 
only  loved  me  more  for  that." 

"  So  you've  practically  got  two  sweethearts  in 
what  you  call  heaven,"  Albert  persisted. 

"  It  may  seem  so  to  your  monopolistic  vision," 
I  answered ;  "  but  really  I  believe  the  one  whom 
I  call  sweetheart  most  often  is  my  great  great 
great  granddaughter,  Content,  a  sixteen-year-old 
lately  come  from  earth.  I  do  think  sometimes 
she  is  about  the  sweetest  creature  God  has  yet 


92  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

made.  Earth  was  not  fitted  to  grow  such  girls 
in  our  own  competitive  period." 

Albert  laughed  again.  "  Milton  tells  us  about 
the  fool's  paradise,"  he  said,  "  and  I  guess  that's 
where  you've  got  to." 

"  If  it  is  foolish  to  be  glad  forever,"  I  an- 
swered. "  Oh,  Albert,  I  wish  I  could  make  you 
see  how  sensible  heaven  is.  I  only  wish  I  had 
your  son,  Albert,  here.  Alice  says  you  were  al- 
ways the  same  in  your  manner  toward  him.  He 
could  tell  you  if  we  are  not  acting  sensibly  and 
doing  right." 

Of  course  the  thing  I  might  have  expected  in 
God's  great  mercy  happened  then.  Albert  came, 
and  the  meeting  between  father  and  son  after 
nearly  a  century  of  separation  showed  me  depths 
of  reality  in  the  senior  Albert's  nature  that  made 
my  heart  bound  with  hope.  Albert  did  not  argue 
with  his  father  as  I  had  been  inclined  to  do ;  but 
just  showed  him  his  heart's  desire  to  have  him 
in  heaven.  He  seemed  almost  ready  to  give  up 
to  God;  yet  it  was  hard  for  him  to  acknowledge 
his  need  of  the  Saviour  of  sinners.  "I  am  a 
Christian,"  he  insisted.  "  I  am  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist." 

He  insisted  on  taking  us  to  one  of  their  meet- 
ings. It  occurred  within  the  central  glories  of 
the  Milky  Way,  and  was  attended  by  some  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  lost  souls ;  for  Christian  Sci- 
ence has  proven  to  be  a  well  adapted  and  popular 
cult  in  hell.     We  found  the  audience  listening  to 


HELL'S  COMFORTER  93 

the  address  of  an  almost  incredibly  weazened,  de- 
crepit, not  unvenerable  looking  feminine  spirit. 
"  It  is  She,  herself,"  whispered  our  guide. 

As  on  earth,  we  found  the  leader  of  the  cult  a 
woman.  A  marvelous  power  of  diction  was  being 
wielded  by  this  frail-appearing  creature,  who 
seemed  ready  to  vanish  with  sheer  weariness. 
"  There  is  no  death,"  she  was  saying ;  "  so  much 
of  our  theory  has  been  proven  in  the  experience 
of  each  of  us.  Some  of  us  used  to  dread  death. 
Preachers  used  to  frighten  us  with  funeral  ser- 
mons preached  in  advance.  Literature  was  full 
of  the  dirge  and  wail  of  dying.  But  when  this 
6  King  of  Terrors '  came  to  you  and  me,  he 
brought  only  disillusion  from  the  spell  of  matter. 
We  laughed  to  find  that  we  were  not  dead,  but 
alive,  immortal,  inextinguishable  for  ever  more. 
Not  God,  Good,  Himself,  Itself,  could,  would 
take  from  us  the  inalienable,  inherent,  essential 
nature  of  living  forever.  The  last  hampering 
fear  dropped  like  a  shattered  fetter  from  our 
soul.  There  is  no  fear.  What  have  we  to  cower 
before,  and  shrink  from,  and  cringe  under  now? 
The  worst  has  happened  and  has  proved  to  be 
only  a  bug-a-boo.  Other  bug-a-boos  with  which 
preachers  of  the  gospel,  so  called,  used  to  try 
and  fright  us  have  failed  to  materialize  in  the  all- 
ness  of  Good.  Where  is  their  lake  of  fire  and 
brimstone?  It  could  not  harm  our  spirits  if  we 
found  it.  We  pass  through  the  sun's  photo- 
sphere unsinged:  we  linger  in  ice  caves  of  dead 


94  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

planets  unchilled.  All  these  apparently  material 
things  are  only  a  vain  show.  Mind  alone  is  real. 
As  a  man  thinketh,  so  is  he.  Evil  be  to  him  who 
evil  thinks.  There  is  no  sin,  except  as  a  man 
thinks  that  he  sins.  The  cure  of  sinning  is  to 
stop  thinking  that  there  is  reality  in  sin.  There 
is  no  atonement  needed,  except  for  men  to  think 
thoughts  that  are  at  one  with  Infinite  Mind.  There 
is  no  punishment,  temporary  or  eternal;  except 
in  the  distorted  dread  of  a  punishment  that  never 
comes.  Good  is  all,  and  Good  cannot  punish 
Itself. 

"  Where  is  the  weeping  and  gnashing  of 
teeth  ?  "  she  concluded  with  a  flourish.  "  We 
spirits  have  no  tears  to  weep,  and  no  teeth  to 
gnash.  Where  is  the  bottomless  pit?  Have  we 
seen  any  smoke  of  its  torment  darkening  the  sun 
and  the  air?  Could  we  be  held  in  by  its  chain, 
its  key,  or  its  seal?  Where  is  that  outer  dark- 
ness? We  spirits  can  see  without  light.  Where  is 
the  place  prepared  for  the  Devil  and  his  angels? 
There  is  no  real  devil,  and  he  has  no  angels.  We 
look  outward  into  all  these  glories  which  blaze 
and  whirl  around  us.  We  look  to  the  zenith,  and 
we  look  to  the  nadir.  We  sweep  with  all  but  lim- 
itless vision  the  horizon  of  the  nearer  and  better 
known  infinity.  We  peer  and  delve  into  the  ex- 
haustless  world  of  mystery  contained  in  a  single 
molecule.  And  when  we  have  sought  and  experi- 
mented and  analyzed  and  dissected  and  recon- 
noitered  for  a  century  in  vain,  we  still  call  to  the 


CHEERING  MAKE-BELIEVE         95 

echoes  of  the  universe  and  receive  back  our  ques- 
tion in  answer,  *  Where  is  hell?  Where  is  hell? 
Where  is  hell?'" 

The  applause  and  the  laughter  which  greeted 
this  peroration  seemed  to  rattle  among  the  very 
rafters  of  hell ;  yet  I  was  conscious  that  not  even 
the  faintest  pulsation  of  it  was  heard  in  heaven. 
We  stayed  to  the  "  demonstration  meeting"  which 
though  smaller  in  its  attendance  was  even  more 
curious  than  the  preaching  service.  We  could 
see  that  our  partial  convert  to  Christ  was  getting 
back  under  the  spell  of  this  type  of  hell's 
"  healthy  optimism,"  and  we  watched  and  waited 
for  some  means  of  weaning  him  from  its  infatua- 
tion. The  testimonies  in  this  demonstration 
meeting  were  all  along  the  line  of  the  relief  from 
gloom  and  despondency  occasioned  by  embracing 
the  principles  of  Christian  Science  either  in  the 
mortal  or  the  spirit  life,  and  of  wonderful 
mental  cures  wrought  by  promulgating  its  evan- 
gel. One  spoke  of  the  overwhelming  despair  with 
which  the  new  consciousness  had  come  to  him 
after  passing  through  the  heavy  curtains  of 
death.  "  The  somber  preaching  I  had  heard 
from  infancy  dominated  all  my  thoughts,"  he 
said,  "  and  I  could  only  moan  and  wail,  '  This 
is  hell ! '  I  imagined  myself  lost  forever,  and 
could  thing  of  nothing  but  the  sins  of  my  life  on 
earth,  as  I  had  been  taught  to  regard  them.  The 
awful  loneliness  of  spending  eternity  cast  out 
from  the  presence  of  God,  whose  great  salvation 


96  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

I  had  neglected,  hung  like  a  black  pall  over  the 
sky  of  my  future.  I  would  have  cried  to  God  for 
mercy  and  forgiveness,  only  I  had  always  been 
taught  to  believe  there  could  be  no  possibility  of 
prayer  or  penitence  in  perdition.  I  am  sure  I 
had  what  the  theologians  would  call  a  conviction 
of  sin  deeper  than  I  had  known  in  a  lifetime  on 
earth.  It  was  so  awful  to  be  separated  from  all 
the  good,  kind  people  I  had  loved  all  my  life. 
Contingencies  that  had  seemed  vague  before  be- 
came terribly  real.  I  felt  that  I  must  pray  the 
prayer  of  the  publican,  or  lose  my  reason.  Even 
if  it  could  never  be  of  any  use  now,  I  thought  I 
would  at  least  like  to  tell  God  I  was  sorry.  I 
wondered  if  God  could  hear  me  in  hell. 

"  *  So  lonely  'twas  that  God  Himself 
Scarce  seemed  there  to  be.' 

"  And  then  I  would  remember  that  God  is 
everywhere.  He  is  our  Father  who  art  in  heaven, 
and  on  earth,  and  in  hell.  He  upholds  all  things 
by  the  word  of  His  power.  And  Christ  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  God  is  the  same 
always,  and  the  same  everywhere,  and  His  mercy 
endureth  forever. 

"  But  while  I  was  in  that  morbid  state  of  mind 
and  musing  over  these  conceptions  of  an  effete 
orthodoxy,  until  I  was  just  trembling  upon  the 
verge  of  an  old-fashioned  conversion ;  there  came 
to  me  the  spirit  of  a  certain  Christian  Science 
reader  and  healer,  at  whom  I  had  often  laughed 


A  DEMONSTRATION  MEETING      97 

on  earth.  He  said  to  me,  '  Hail,  acquaintance  of 
former  days,  believe  on  Christ,  Truth,  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved.'  I  cast  about  in  my  mind  to  know 
what  such  a  salutation  in  hell,  where  I  believed 
myself  to  be,  might  mean.  And  musing  over  the 
strange  juxtaposition  of  concrete  and  abstract, 
personal  and  impersonal,  in  his  exhortation,  I  ex- 
claimed at  last,  '  Well,  which?  ' 

"  4  And  ye  shall  know  the  Truth,  and  the  Truth 
shall  make  you  free,'  was  his  reply. 

"  Seeing  that  it  was  considered  proper  and  in 
good  form  to  quote  Scripture  in  hell,  I  replied  in 
the  language  of  Pilate,  '  And  what  is  truth  ?  ' 

"  '  The  Good  is  the  True,'  replied  my  visitor. 
'  All  else  is  but  the  shadow  of  a  dream.'  And 
so  he  unfolded  to  me  the  Divine  Truth  of  Chris- 
tian Science,  as  I  had  never  understood  it  before ; 
that  there  was  really  nothing  wrong  with  me  but 
wrong  thoughts  of  myself  and  of  God,  Good.  I 
must  learn  not  to  think  sin,  and  remorse,  and  evil 
companionship,  for  these  were  not  real,  and  noth- 
ing was  real  but  Good.  So  I  have  found  relief," 
this  one  concluded,  "  from  what  truly  seemed  like 
the  second  death  I  had  heard  preached  and  sung 
about ;  and  while  I  keep  close  within  the  sphere  of 
Christian  Science  influence,  I  am  no  longer  so 
much  troubled  by  the  associations  and  thoughts 
which  at  first  filled  my  soul  with  horror  and 
dread." 

Similar    testimonies    to    relief    from    troubled 
consciences    were    given    in '  in    great    numbers. 


98  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Sometimes  hundreds  thus  "  demonstrated "  at 
once  during  this  after-meeting,  each  making  a 
distinct  impression  upon  the  listener's  mind. 
There  were  also  the  boasts  of  "healers,"  one  of 
whom  had  even  persuaded  one  who  thought  him- 
self a  demon  of  hell  that  he  was  in  reality  an  an- 
gel of  light.  Another  had  found  a  suicide  rav- 
ing in  a  delirium  in  which  he  imagined  himself 
possessed  of  a  body  which  he  was  continually 
mangling,  strangling,  poisoning,  suffocating, 
dragging  its  corpse  through  space,  until  it  came 
feebly  to  life  with  many  a  pang,  only  to  lay  vio- 
lent hands  upon  itself  again.  "  I  fixed  my  atten- 
tion upon  this  troubled  soul,"  the  healer  said, 
"  and  I  reflected,  '  You  never  had  a  body  any 
more  than  you  really  have  now.  You  never  com- 
mitted suicide  except  in  your  thoughts.  You 
need  nothing  now  but  to  be  relieved  of  these 
thoughts.'  So  I  looked  at  him  and  he  looked  at 
me,  and  there  was  a  great  calm." 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  "  demonstration  " 
was  that  given  by  one  who  claimed  to  be  the  spirit 
of  Judas.  "  I  am  astonished,"  he  said,  "  to  think 
of  the  centuries  of  gnawing  remorse  I  suffered 
until  one  came  to  make  it  plain  to  me  that  the 
Christ,  of  whose  death  I  had  supposed  myself  to 
be  guilty  by  basest  treason,  never  really  died  at 
all,  having  no  real  mortal  body  to  suffer  and  die 
in,  because  there  is  no  reality  in  suffering  or 
death.  She  assures  me  that  Christ,  Truth,  sim- 
ply retired  to  the  privacy  of  Joseph's  tomb  and 


THE  FAR  VISION  OF  DIVES         99 

there  worked  out  the  principles  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence. My  mind  has  thus  been  greatly  relieved, 
and  I  am  coming  to  look  upon  myself  as  the 
greatest  benefactor  of  all  the  human  and  extra- 
human  race." 

Young  Albert  and  I  were  beginning  to  feel  that 
we  must  take  a  hand  in  the  demonstration  meet- 
ing if  we  could  hope  to  hold  his  father's  mind  to 
even  a  beginning  of  better  thoughts.  We  could 
not  fail  to  be  conscious  of  many  curious  glances 
cast  upon  us.  How  could  these  people  help  but 
feel  that  we  were  not  of  their  world?  So  there 
came  into  both  our  hearts  a  mighty  prayer,  in- 
dited by  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  God  would  just 
now  in  great  mercy  show  these  poor  sham-crav- 
ing, sham-crazed  souls  a  glimpse  of  His  real 
heaven  to  demonstrate  hell's  blackness  by  con- 
trast. When  Judas  testified,  Albert  junior  could 
contain  himself  no  longer.  "  Look  on  us !  "  he 
cried,  in  the  language  of  Peter  and  John  to  the 
lame  man  at  the  temple  gate  called  Beautiful. 
"  Look  on  us.  We  came  from  heaven  to  tell  you 
that  there  is  something  better  for  you  than  mak- 
ing believe  you  are  not  in  hell.  We  are  asking 
our  God  to  show  you  one  real  glimpse  of  heaven. 
Oh  look !  look  !  "  And  as  he  spake,  the  wondrous 
vision  came  in  answer  to  believing  prayer.  Per- 
haps they  could  not  all  see  it  alike,  or  any  of 
them  quite  so  clearly  as  we  could.  But  there 
amid  those  same  stellar  glories,  around  us,  among 
us,  yet  morally  so  far  away,  was  heaven  revealed, 


100  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

all  unconscious  of  our  gaze,  like  a  wondrous  liv- 
ing, moving  picture.  I  could  distinguish  ac- 
quaintances. There  was  Joy  herself  playing 
with  our  twins,  Jeanie's  and  mine;  and  Jeanie 
came  bringing  the  blood  washed,  renewed,  glori- 
fied Sadie.  Albert  and  his  father  saw  them  too, 
and  the  elder  Albert  exclaimed,  "  It  is  my  own 
wife,  and  that  is  little  Sadie  Wells.  If  she  can 
be  saved,  why  cannot  I?  " 

We  heard  heaven's  joy-song  of  welcome  to  the 
repentant  one.  The  strain  came  so  faintly  to  our 
ravished  ears,  that  hell's  assembly  perforce  grew 
very  still  to  listen  to  it.  Some  were  melted  down 
in  instant  penitence;  all  seemed  awed  and  wonder 
stricken  by  what  they  saw  and  heard  during 
those  precious  moments.  For  there  in  the  midst 
of  heaven's  jubilation,  the  center  of  its  adoring, 
grateful  love,  stood  revealed  to  the  soul's  view 
our  own  thorn-crowned,  sword-pierced,  world  re- 
deeming Saviour,  as  it  were  a  lamb  that  had  been 
slain,  His  heart  still  bleeding  for  the  sorrows  and 
sins  He  came  to  take  away  —  just  our  own  cruci- 
fied Jesus,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever, the  lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not 
for  ours  only,  but  for  the  sins  of  all  the  worlds 
and  all  the  ages :  He  stood  stretching  out  scarred 
hands  that  were  labor-hardened,  and  sun-burned, 
yet  shaped  for  tender  touch;  and  those  hands 
seemed  to  reach  everywhere,  even  down  into  hell, 
and  those  deep  spirit-eyes  looked  into  each  soul's 


WHICH  WILL  YE  SERVE?         101 

eyes  that  looked  to  Him,  revealing  God's  love  and 
the  utterness  of  each  one's  need  of  Him. 

Lit  up  by  the  reflection  of  this  vision,  hell's 
dinginess  and  barren  pretence  at  its  best  came 
out  clear  to  the  understanding.  Sin  and  shame 
stood  revealed  in  their  naked  ugliness,  shrinking, 
cowering,  shivering,  unable  to  dissemble  or  to  hide. 
And  back  of  it  all,  brought  out  into  view  as  if 
by  the  concentrated  searchlight  power  of  a  mil- 
lion suns  focused  together,  there  leered  a  wry 
unwilling  face  large  as  the  sky  of  hell;  a  brow 
of  thought  just  beneath  omniscience,  a  chin  of 
power  only  short  of  God's ;  eyes  that  burned  like 
fevered  seas  of  unrest  over  unsounded  depths  of 
treachery,  hatred,  and  despair ;  lips  that  curled  in 
mockery's  thin  mask  of  anguish,  sad  for  their 
very  cruelty.  Face  to  face  thus  we  saw  them 
with  infinity  between,  the  world's  Tempter  and 
its  Redeemer,  the  Adversary,  source  of  all  evil,  the 
Advocate,  author  of  its  greater  good.  For  some 
precious  moments  the  contrast  of  sin  and  salva- 
tion was  felt  in  hell,  I  believe,  by  some  millions 
of  souls,  and  then  the  vision  faded,  leaving  con- 
viction to  make  its  unforced  choice  between  the 
two. 


102 '  A  MISSION"'  TO  HELL 


CHAPTER  VI 

We  found  ourselves  surrounded  by  some  scores 
of  penitents,  while  a  few  hundred  others,  of 
whom  Albert's  father  was  one,  declared  willingly 
that  they  were  done  with  Christian  Science. 
These  concentric  circles  were  formed  about  us 
without  any  urging  upon  our  part,  almost,  as  it 
were,  automatically,  each  individual  in  them  gov- 
erned by  the  polarity  of  his  new  impulse.  Out 
and  beyond  were  millions  interested,  for  the  thrill 
of  what  had  happened  was  felt  far  out  in  hell ;  and 
while  some  who  had  seen  something  of  the  vision 
fled  away,  other  millions  more  amenable  in  mood 
flocked  around.  We  endeavored  to  exhort  these 
half-pursuaded  ones  and  onlookers  to  yield  to  the 
same  mighty  influence  of  God's  Spirit;  but  some 
seemed  merely  dazed  by  what  they  had  seen,  others 
were  curious  and  critical,  others  contended  that  this 
spell  had  been  wrought  by  black  art  and  power  of 
enchantment.  Some  admitted  that  they  had  been 
impressed,  but  wished  to  understand  better  what 
it  all  might  mean,  or  preferred  to  delay  their  de- 
cision for  Christ.  They  wished  to  reason  calmly 
and  deliberately  over  this  unexpected  event,  they 
deprecated  all  excitement  in  religion,  and  were 
opposed  to  sensational  and  spectacular  methods 
of  appeal.  Some  declared  their  doubt  if  any 
lasting  good  would  result  from  the  wave  of 
emotion  which  had  brought  this  group  of  seekers 


HELL'S  CHOOSING  GROUND       103 

about  us  crying,  "  What  shall  we  do  to  be 
saved?  "  There  would  inevitably  come  a  reac- 
tion from  such  overstrained  feeling,  and  the  final 
result  would  be  detrimental  to  the  best  interests 
of  morality  and  of  religion.  Others  were  express- 
ing their  positive  opposition  to  this  interruption 
of  an  accredited  religious  assemblage,  and  were 
beginning  to  threaten  that  we  ought  to  be  sum- 
marily dealt  with,  while  back  of  them  all  lowered, 
indistinct  but  terrible,  the  great  face  of  the  poten- 
tate of  hell,  who  would  willingly  brook  no  in- 
trusion of  his  rightful  domain. 

Our  hands  were  very  full  for  a  time,  between 
speaking  words  of  cheer  and  hope  to  broken 
and  contrite  hearts  bowed  around  us,  filled  with 
a  revulsion  to  loathing  for  the  falseness  of  their 
past  and  of  that  world  in  which  they  had  been 
moving,  and  at  the  same  time  trying  to  meet  so 
many  objectors,  and  to  bring  so  many  hesitating 
ones  to  a  decision.  I  was  more  than  ever  grateful 
for  young  Albert's  comradeship  as  I  beheld  him 
in  calm,  strong  persuasiveness  bidding  our  con- 
verts put  their  whole  trust  in  the  merciful  God 
and  Saviour  who  had  revealed  Himself  to  them  in 
answer  to  our  simple  prayer.  In  those  moments 
he  and  I  grew  in  soul  as  never  before,  while  we 
gave  our  attention  to  the  individual  needs  and 
difficulties  of  each  stirred  spirit  around  us.  My 
heart  was  swelling  with  rapture  and  longing,  as 
I  cried  to  God  for  others  and  others  still,  that 
this  moment  of  supreme  opportunity  might  not 


104  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

pass  by  unavailingly  for  one  of  them,  leaving 
that  soul  hardened  in  its  power  of  resistance  to 
God.  I  remember  particularly  pleading  with  the 
soul  who  had  first  testified  in  the  demonstration 
meeting  of  the  Scientists  as  one  who  had  been 
near  to  repentance  when  he  first  came  to  find  him- 
self in  hell.  But  he  replied  that  he  had  expe- 
rienced these  emotions  of  conviction  so  painfully 
at  that  time,  he  shrank  now  from  renewing  the 
impressions  which  cost  him  so  much  mental  dis- 
comfort then.  Christian  Science  had  brought 
him  partial  relief,  and  it  would  be  ungrateful  in 
him  not  to  remain  true  to  that  faith. 

There  seemed  nothing  left  but  to  endeavor  to 
seek  out  the  lady  of  the  cult.  If  she  could  be 
converted  to  the  Savior  of  sinners  herself,  the 
whole  bubble  might  collapse  in  hell,  as  it  had  on 
earth  after  its  originator's  decease.  I  had  con- 
siderable difficulty  in  finding  her.  I  had  noticed 
after  her  wonderful  speech  in  the  Scientist  meet- 
ing, that  instead  of  seeming  elated  by  its  splendid 
success,  she  appeared  fairly  to  shrink  with  over- 
powering weariness.  All  through  the  demonstra- 
tion meeting  she  had  lingered  in  view  drawn 
within  herself;  but  at  the  time  of  the  vision  she 
shrivelled  up  almost  to  the  vanishing  point. 
Thus  I  found  her  by  searching  in  deepest  concern 
and  pity,  and  getting  her  under  the  focus  of  a 
strong  lens  of  discriminating  appreciation.  "  I 
feel  so  sorry  for  you,"  I  said  as  soon  as  she  was 


HONEST  CONFESSION  105 

clearly  discerned.  "  This  thing  is  wearing  you 
out.  Here  you  are  dying  by  inches  through  the 
centuries;  will  you  not  come  to  Christ  that  you 
may  have  life?  " 

Perhaps  she  was  really  too  much  exhausted  by 
all  that  she  had  just  gone  through  to  attempt  to 
act  her  part  with  me,  perhaps  she  yielded  by  so 
much  to  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  at  any 
rate  she  took  me  into  her  confidence,  as  perhaps 
she  had  not  been  confidential  with  any  one  out- 
side her  heirarchy  since  the  beginning  of  her 
fame  in  hell.  "  I  am  tired  and  ill,"  she  admitted ; 
"  but  my  success  astonishes  and  fascinates  me 
still.  I  cannot  understand  it  yet.  As  long  as 
we  were  honest  in  talking  Quinbyism,  and  giving 
him  the  credit  for  his  philosophy  of  health,  we 
could  hardly  get  any  one  to  listen  to  us  long  at 
a  time.  But  when  we  invented  the  name  of 
Christian  Science  for  it,  and  gave  out  that  we  had 
it  by  revelation,  almost  immediately  we  began  to 
have  thousands  at  our  feet.  Our  doctrine  was 
such  a  stupendous  success  on  earth,  that  it  was 
hard  for  me  sometimes  to  keep  from  believing  it 
myself.  But  it  has  been  a  millionfold  greater 
success  here,  and  it  has  lasted  longer,  and  seems 
likely  to  live.  I  am  in  it  for  all  it  will  yield  me. 
I  will  see  the  play  through  —  at  least  as  long  as 
I  have  the  star  part.  If  this  is  hell,  it  is  a  vast 
bonanza  mine  for  me.  f  Better  to  rule  in  hell, 
than  serve  in  heaven '  is  the  sentiment  that  suits 


106  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

my  case  exactly.  I  think  really  you  had  better  go 
on  and  talk  to  some  one  who  isn't  making  a 
good  thing  of  it  here." 

I  could  not  change  her  from  this  decision. 
"  Put  yourself  in  my  place,"  she  replied  to  my 
expostulation.  "  Who  are  you  in  heaven  ?  Is 
your  name  echoed  from  world  to  world?  Are 
you  confronted  and  charmed  by  an  idealized,  ex- 
alted image  of  yourself  in  the  minds  of  your  fel- 
lows whichever  way  you  turn?  Can  you  turn 
every  commonplace  thought  you  express  into 
treasure,  and  do  your  fellows  vie  with  each  other 
in  enriching  you  for  fancied  amelioration  of  end- 
lessly chronic  sufferings?  How  large  a  person- 
age would  I  be  in  your  world?  The  humblest 
penitent,  saved  from  degraded  crimes,  would  have 
more  to  say  for  himself  than  I  could  have  to  say 
for  myself.  Yes,  the  strain  of  this  unreality  is 
something  frightful;  but  that  is  part  of  the 
penalty,  I  suppose,  of  being  eminent." 

So  my  urging  proved  unavailing.  With  one 
or  two  exceptions,  those  influenced  to  decide  for 
heaven  just  then  were  won  directly  and  solely  by 
the  power  of  the  vision  of  heaven.  "  You  are 
God's  converts  rather  than  ours,"  Albert  assured 
them,  "  and  we  can  safely  commend  you  to  God 
and  to  the  word  of  His  grace,  which  is  able  to 
build  you  up,  and  give  you  an  inheritance  among 
all  them  which  are  sanctified.  God  will  talk  to 
you  whenever  you  talk  to  Him,  just  as  He  is 
talking  to  us  now.     He  is  able  to  sanctify  you 


HELL'S  PASTORAL  PROBLEMS    107 

wholly  from  this  moment,  if  you  will  but  give 
your  whole  attention  to  what  He  says  to  you. 
You  may  reach  heaven  at  one  bound,  or  you 
may  climb  slowly  heavenward,  often  slipping 
back,  just  according  as  you  yield  yourselves 
wholly  or  partially  to  God,  trusting  wholly  in 
the  only  Saviour,  or  partly  in  your  own  endeavors 
to  make  up  for  the  past.  The  cut-throat  who 
hung  upon  his  cross  close  beside  our  Jesus  only 
had  to  offer  one  prayer,  and  he  has  been  in  para- 
dise from  that  day." 

"  It  is  true !  "  cried  one  of  our  penitents.  "  I 
am  that  other  plunderer  that  hung  and  railed  on 
the  Nazarene  from  my  cross  at  His  other  side. 
Often  have  I  looked  for  my  confederate  in  this 
spirit  world.  But  I  saw  him  just  now  in  that 
vision.  I  knew  him  by  his  hearty,  straight-out 
way.  There  was  never  a  lad  just  like  him. 
And  there  he  was  close  by  the  same  One  we  were 
crucified  with.  Only  he  had  grown  like  Him,  for 
he  had  been  so  long  seeing  Him  as  He  is.  And  I 
would  be  with  them  too !  Who  would  think  that 
one  little  wish  expressed  to  Jesus  Christ  would 
make  all  this  difference  between  us  two  for  twenty 
centuries  and  a  half !  " 

The  greater  number  of  our  converts  had  been 
moved  in  this  same  way  by  recognizing  people 
they  had  known  in  our  vision  of  heaven.  People 
who  had  been  separated  by  sudden  death  from 
those  they  loved  now  saw  them  as  suddenly  again. 
I  was  reminded  of  the  story  of  a  wayward  girl 


108  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

converted  from  a  life  of  shame  and  heart-break 
by  finding  her  mother's  photograph  hung  upon 
the  wall  of  a  mission.  Here  were  wayward  sons 
and  daughters  in  hell  just  granted  a  glimpse  of  a 
mother,  a  father  in  heaven  still  longing  for  their 
presence  there.  The  mystery  was  that  every 
spectator  from  hell  had  not  been  instantly  con- 
verted. Of  course  we  pleaded  most  earnestly  with 
Albert's  father,  who  had  been  our  guide  to  this 
concourse,  and  who  lingered  near  among  the  un- 
decided ones.  "  I  suppose  you  will  organize  your 
converts  into  a  church,"  he  suggested.  "  I  will 
join  as  an  associate  member,  and  accept  office  as 
a  trustee  or  vestryman  or  something.  You  shall 
have  my  subscription,  and  I  will  give  you  stand- 
ing among  us  by  my  name  and  influence." 

"  God  forbid ! "  young  Albert  and  I  exclaimed 
at  once.  "Why  father,"  Albert  said,  "that 
would  be  almost  giving  up  our  last  hope  of  ever 
seeing  you  soundly  coverted  to  God.  While  you 
were  patronizing  Christ,  and  listening  with  a  con- 
descending smirk  to  the  most  strenuous  applica- 
tions of  gospel  truth,  growing  as  familiar  as  an 
undertaker  with  solemn  appeals  which  you  are 
constantly  gaining  practice  in  resisting;  how 
would  the  arrow  of  honest  conviction  ever  have  a 
chance  to  reach  your  heart?  Oh  father!"  he 
cried.  "  Do  not  postpone  your  decision,  or  try 
to  compromise  matters  with  God.  It  is  now, 
now  that  you  must  be  saved  or  damned.  When 
will  God  ever  give  you  a  stronger  demonstration 


A  HOPELESS  POSITION  109 

or  inducement  than  you  have  experienced  just 
now?  Can  you  not  see  that  this  has  been  and 
will  be  the  hell  of  your  hell  —  eternally  trifling 
with  the  eternal  God,  who  will  not  be  trifled 
with?" 

The  elder  Albert  showed  signs  of  rising  anger. 
"  It  is  true,"  I  said,  as  his  spirit  turned  to  me : 
"  you  can  be  a  trustee  or  a  vestryman,  and  still 
be  damned.  I  am  rather  looking  for  a  dozen  or 
more  of  my  former  trustees  who  haven't  as  yet, 
to  my  knowledge,  arrived  in  heaven,  in  hope  and 
fear  that  I  may  find  them  occupying  some  dis- 
tinguished positions  here  and  there  in  hell.  I 
like  your  suggestion  about  organizing  a  church. 
It  would  seem  a  pity  to  leave  all  these  young  be- 
lievers straggling  about  undeveloped  and  unor- 
ganized for  mutual  help.  But  there  is  one  thing 
you  can  calmly  rest  assured  we  won't  do.  If  we 
cannot  found  a  church  strong  enough  to  stand 
alone  with  God,  we  won't  set  one  up  and  prop 
it  from  the  outside  to  be  very  kindly  owned,  con- 
trolled, and  popularized  by  men  without  faith, 
strong  only  in  policies  of  compromise  with  evil. 
You  have  either  got  to  come  in,  or  keep  your 
hands  off.  You  say  you  are  done  with  Christian 
Science.  Then  what  is  there  for  you  but  a  full 
surrender  to  Christ  ?  We  will  gladly  have  you  in 
our  little  church  of  blood-washed  sinners ;  but  you 
will  have  to  come  through  Christ,  the  Door. 
He  says,  '  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life.     No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by 


110  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

me ! '  Come  to  Christ  now,  or  else  you  remain  in 
the  outer  darkness,  out  of  heaven,  out  of  your 
wife's  fond  embrace,  out  of  the  ark  o."  safety, 
out  of  everything  good,  out  of  everything  glad; 
forever  more  without." 

"  You  need  not  be  scornful,"  Albert  senior  pro- 
tested. "  There  are  plenty  of  other  churches  I 
can  join  besides  yours." 

"  Yes,  hell-churches,"  I  admitted.  "  Syna- 
gogues of  Satan:  Mormons,  perhaps,  or  Spirit- 
ualists, possibly  some  Hicksite  Quakers." 

"  That  is  a  very  small  portion  of  the  list,"  he 
answered  proudly.  "  Besides  these  I  know  of  some 
Roman  Catholic  churches,  some  Greek  Catholic, 
some  Anglican  Catholic  or  Episcopalian,  beside 
Universalist,  Unitarian,  Zionite,  Millenial  Dawn, 
Methodist  North,  Methodist  South,  Campbelite 
Baptist,  Free  Baptist,  Close  Communion  Baptist 
both  Hard  Shell  and  New  School,  Lutherans,  Con- 
gregationalists,  Reformed  Dutch,  and  hundreds 
more.  If  this  is  hell,  then  hell  is  the  paradise  of 
denominations." 

"  I  did  not  hear  you  include  Presbyterians  in 
your  list,"  I  suggested  somewhat  timidly  and 
wholly  aghast  at  such  a  revelation.  "  Can  it  be 
that  among  so  many  excellent  societies  ours  of 
foremost  standing  and  influence  is  not  repre- 
sented ?  " 

"  Presbyterians  ?  "  asked  Albert.  "  Why  yes, 
there's  a  man  named  Rorer  — " 

"  Oh  my  phophetic  soul !  "  I  exclaimed.     "  Has 


RELIGIONS  OF  HELL  111 

Rorer  gotten  to  be  an  elder  again  in  hell? " 
"  Did  you  know  him?  "  Albert  asked.  "  Why 
certainly.  He  is  senior  elder  and  clerk  of  session 
in  one  of  the  swell  Presbyterian  churches  of  these 
parts.     I'll  take  you  around  there  some  time." 

I  promised  to  go  with  him,  but  I  appealed  to 
him  again  that  we  had  something  more  pressing 
to  which  we  should  attend.  "  I  cannot  under- 
stand about  these  hell-churches  until  I  can  make 
a  study  of  them ! "  I  said ;  "  but  after  all  you 
have  experienced  since  we  met  here,  do  you,  can 
you  really  think  for  a  moment  that  you  could  be 
satisfied  in  any  one  of  all  these  organizations 
away  from  God  and  from  Joy  and  heaven  ?  " 

"  No  I  cannot,"  he  said  with  a  ring  of  frank- 
ness in  his  thought  that  made  my  soul  glad.  "  I 
know  that.  But  when  it  comes  to  analyzing  my 
feelings  and  confessing  that  I  am  converted  to 
your  gospel,  I  am  hardly  prepared  to  do  that. 
You  must  give  a  fellow  a  little  more  time.  It 
seems  so  strange  to  be  really  getting  in  earnest 
about  something.  I  have  lived  a  multiple,  semi- 
plausible,  many-masked  sort  of  life  for  so  long, 
that  I  hardly  know  what  to  make  of  myself  now 
that  I  seem  to  be  getting  down  to  one  positive 
conviction.  I  have  been  such  a  hypocrite,  how 
can  I  ever  trust  myself  as  real?  I  wonder  how 
these  people  will  hold  out  in  their  sudden  peni- 
tence. I  have  known  some  of  them  for  smirk 
and  tonguey  Christian  Scientists  —  not  the  inno- 
cent, lovable  sort  we  sometimes  met  on  earth  at 


112  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

all.  I  wonder  how  sincere  they  are  in  their  new 
profession.  These  conversions  off-hand,  they 
frighten  me.  I  rub  my  eyes  metaphorically  to 
be  sure  of  the  transformation  I  witness  here. 
And  I  can't  help  asking,  Is  it  actual?  Will  it 
last?" 

"  Try  it  yourself,  Albert,"  I  suggested,  "  and 
then  you  will  know  if  this  change  is  real.  The 
strong  element  in  favor  of  spirit-world  evangelism 
is  that  we  have  only  to  be  real  ourselves  and 
nothing  false  can  join  itself  to  us.  If  there 
were  one  attempting  hypocrisy  in  this  praying 
group,  his  own  hollowness  would  float  him  out  of 
the  circle.  Struggle  as  he  might,  he  would  find 
himself 'blown  farther  away  than  an  open  adver- 
sary. All  that  holds  you  near  is  your  sympathy 
with  us,  and  further  in  than  your  appreciation 
penetrates  there  is  a  sacred  confidential  privacy 
of  souls  talking  with  God  which  I  can  tell  you 
about,  but  I  cannot  unveil  it  to  your  sight  until 
you  yield  to  God's  Spirit  yourself  in  penitential 
prayer.  Whatever  is  to  be  for  each  of  these 
seeking  souls  the  pathway  of  its  approach  to  the 
higher  glory  of  heaven ;  you  can  rest  quietly  as- 
sured that  each  is  already  truly  within  the  strait 
gate  and  learning  to  walk  the  narrow  way  that 
leads,  as  sure  as  God  is  true,  on  to  eternal  life. 
You  do  not  need  to  be  solicitious  about  these 
others.  The  question  of  tremendous  solicitude 
is  for  yourself,  and  it  is  all  just  between  you 
and  your  offended  God,  your  reconciling  Saviour; 


ONE  ADVANTAGE  113 

even  as  though  there  were  no  other  sentient  be- 
ings inhabiting  this  boundless  universe  but  just 
you  and  Him.  What  are  you  going  to  do  with 
the  Christ?     Decide  now,  and  now  forever." 

Albert's  soul  was  bowed  low.  He  said,  "  I  can- 
not feel  that  there  is  anything  to  me  to  make  a 
decision.  I  cannot  look  back  on  all  my  flimsy  ex- 
istence and  be  sure  that  I  ever  felt  anything 
really,  ever  thought  or  believed  anything,  ever 
actually  decided  anything,  except  as  the  drift 
took  me.  I  have  never  really  been  anything,  and 
I  am  nothing  now.     How  can  nothing  decide?  " 

Then  young  Albert  drew  him  into  a  strong 
embrace.  "  Father,"  he  said,  "  if  3^ou  know  that 
you  are  nothing;  then  you  are  very  near  to 
knowing  Christ  as  your  all  in  all.  Won't  you 
take  Him  right  now  to  be  your  all  ?  " 

He  said,  "  Yes,  I  will." 

I  doubt  if  all  hell  contained  a  happier  prayer 
circle  than  ours  after  that.  More  than  one  of 
the  undecided  ones  around  us  was  drawn  in  by 
the  sheer  compulsion  of  the  pull  of  our  joy. 
Yes,  we  would  organize  a  little  church,  we  all 
agreed,  and  we  would  call  it  the  Brotherhood  of 
the  Heavenly  Vision.  But  we  felt  that  we  ought 
to  come  into  touch  in  some  way  with  the  general 
body  of  the  redeemed  in  hell,  if  we  could  find 
them.  I  wished  for  Peale,  but  in  his  stead  came 
a  lady  whose  debonair  presence  told  me  before 
she  spoke  that  this  was  Doctor  Eleanor  Chestnut. 
She  rejoiced  with  us,  and  declared  that  she  had 


114  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

not  seen  anything  exactly  like  it  in  all  her  century 
and  a  half  in  hell.  "  I  do  not  recall,  before, 
coming  across  a  Christian  Scientist  brought  back 
to  the  faith  in  the  Saviour  of  sinners,"  she  said. 
"  Our  work  among  the  souls  of  heathen  seems 
easy  beside  this."  She  was  puzzled  to  know  just 
who  would  come  nearest  to  us  in  the  various  de- 
partments of  infernal  missions.  "  There's  Jerry 
McCauley's  rescue  work,"  she  reflected ;  "  but 
that  is  almost  as  far  from  this  as  ours.  Sam 
Jones  is  slinging  some  hard  shot  around  among 
church  members  of  former  days.  Hell  is  so  wide, 
it  is  hard  to  think  of  all  the  lieutenants  ofsalva- 
tion  one  has  met  here.  Dear  old  Charles  Spur- 
geon  still  holds  forth  the  Word  of  Life  to  splen- 
did audiences,  and  Gipsy  Smith  would  simply 
have  been  lost  for  an  object  to  live  for,  if  he  had 
not  recently  taken  to  touring  in  hell  for  souls 
to  save.  Torrey  and  Biederwolf,  Moody  and 
Finney,  Wesley,  Whitfield,  Hugh  Price  Hughes 
and  Saint  Patrick  are  all  hard  at  it;  while 
Edwards  frequently  remarks,  '  I  told  you  so,'  to 
sinners  in  the  hands  of  an  angry  God.  All 
these  grand  men,  and  many  of  my  own  sex  like 
Jenny  Smith  and  Mrs.  Ballington  Booth,  Pun- 
dita  Ramabai,  and  Frances  Willard  are  stirring, 
each  along  his  or  her  chosen  line  in  our  lost  spirit 
world.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  yearns  over  more 
slaves  than  America  ever  knew,  and  Chinese  Gor- 
don looks  for  lonely  outposts  amid  Satan's  hordes, 
to  hold  them  for  God.     Then  there  are  leaders 


HELL'S  NEW  EVANGELISM        115 

from  the  long  ago  keeping  their  youth  fresh  in 
the  work  of  redemption.  Paul  and  Barnabas  are 
here  to  turn  hell  upside  down  yet,  by  God's  great 
help.  Jonah  preaches  to  a  greater  Nineveh,  and 
Jeremiah  weeps  over  ruins  sadder  than  Jerusa- 
lem. Andrew  and  Philip  are  still  doing  personal 
work,  ably  seconded  by  Henry  Clay  Trumbull. 
In  what  you  are  beginning  to  do  you  are  in 
relation  to  the  work  of  all  these  men  and  women, 
to  some  more  closely  than  to  others.  I  think  if 
we  could  only  take  it  all  in  at  a  glance,  the 
work  of  many  thousands  for  Christ  in  hell,  as  we 
come  upon  it  here  and  there,  we  would  not  feel 
troubled  about  the  future.  Our  plaster  is  surely 
with  us  seeking  His  '  other  sheep.'  Surely  He 
will  seek  for  each  until  He  finds  it.  Perhaps 
if  we  will  ask  Him,  all  softly  in  our  hearts,  He 
will  let  us  see  more  widely  how  He  and  His  help- 
ers are  faring  in  their  long  endeavor." 

Even  as  Doctor  Eleanor  was  still  speaking 
the  answer  came.  Through  the  murk  of  hell's 
gloom  and  dreariness,  soft  incandescent  lights 
shone  out  almost  at  once  tracing  the  vast  circuit 
of  heaven's  influence.  One  of  these  centers  of 
light  disclosed  a  group  of  former  skeptics  talk- 
ing with  Doubting  Thomas,  while  in  their  midst 
stood  the  glowing  shape  of  One  with  pierced 
hands  and  wounded  side.  In  another  circle  of 
light  Mary  Magdalene  was  bending  over  the 
spirit  of  a  fallen  woman,  and  He  whose  feet  she 
had  once  bathed  with  tears  was  with  them  there. 


116  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

We  could  distinguish  many  a  faithful  preacher 
of  the  gospel,  who  had  found  comparatively  little 
to  occupy  him  in  heaven,  addressing  audiences, 
large  or  small,  in  the  vast  itinerary  of  perdition ; 
and  there  were  class-meetings,  prayer-meetings, 
Bible  schools,  and  many  forms  of  soul-winning 
endeavor,  each  bearing  some  fruit  for  God;  al- 
though, for  the  most  part,  those  who  had  scorned 
and  slighted  these  means  of  grace  and  channels  of 
mercy  in  the  mortal  life  were  still  scorning  and 
slighting  them  in  eternity.  Only  in  the  vast 
heathen  provinces  of  hell  we  could  see  that  the 
gospel  message,  told  for  the  first  time  to  some, 
was  bringing  great  joy  to  many  an  error  dark- 
ened soul.  There  was  neither  dimness  nor  dis- 
tance of  miles  in  the  wondrous  vista  opened  to  our 
gaze;  for  we  saw  each  redeemed  group  beckon- 
ing to  us  as  we,  too,  stood  revealed  in  the  glow  of 
the  Holy  Spirit's  light.  How  gladly  we  signaled 
back  to  them  and  sent  our  wireless  messages  of 
cheer  and  comradeship  in  answer  to  theirs  through 
all  the  dim  spaces  of  this  nether  universe !  "  Oh, 
if  my  dear  father  could  be  here  and  see  all  this !  " 
I  exclaimed.  "  I  think  we  would  never  need  to 
argue  about  asonian  redemption  again." 

The  wish  was  only  the  premonition  of  its  own 
fulfilment,  showing  that  Father  had  been  already 
on  his  way  to  us.  I  was  glad  that  his  first  im- 
pression of  hell  should  be  of  its  only  bright  side. 
"  How  sad !     How  glorious ! "  was  his  first  ex- 


THEY  WHO  ARE  WITH  US       117 

clamation.  "  Why  this  is  near  the  sweetest  place 
in  all  the  universe ! "  he  cried  again. 

"  You  see,  Father,  the  doctrine  does  work,"  I 
reminded  him :  "  the  gospel  of  Christ  works  even 
in  hell." 

"  It  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,"  he 
answered  reverently.  "  I  can  understand  more 
clearly  now  how  it  must  be  so.  Wherever  Christ 
is  lifted  up  He  will  draw  all  unto  Him.  Sooner 
or  later!  Sooner  or  later!  Keep  steadily  on, 
boys:  I  am  with  you  now.  Not  at  all  did  I 
realize  it  until  now ;  but  this  must  be  what  I  have 
unconsciously  sighed  for  these  hundred  and  sixty 
years  in  heaven,  in  which  I  have  labored  to  deem 
myself  supremely  happy,  yes,  and  for  the  thirteen 
years  before,  even  since  I  resigned  my  home-mis- 
sion work." 

Then  he  felt  the  touch  of  the  elder  Albert. 
"  Detwiler !  "  he  cried.     "  You  saved  too  !  " 

"Yes,  thank  God!  Father  Prester,"  Albert 
answered,  "  saved  at  last,  even  so  as  by  fire." 

"  My  boy,"  Father  said  to  him,  "  now  I  per- 
ceive and  know  and  understand  with  all  my  mind, 
as  well  as  heart,  that  God  does  truly,  always  and 
everywhere  eventually  answer  prayer.  Not  that 
I  can  truly  claim  to  have  been  praying  for  you  of 
late.  I  could  not  deem  that  it  would  be  right 
to  do  so,  after  I  saw  you  pass  unrepentant  and 
unrenewed  over  the  border  line  of  death.  But  it 
was  further  back,  in  the  old  days,  that  I  prayed 


118  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

for  you,  back  in  the  Valley  of  Summer,  as 
Nathaniel  here  has  named  it;  when  you  were  not 
infrequently  present  in  body  in  my  congregation ; 
yet  I  could  never  assure  my  heart  quite  positively 
that  I  was  favored  truly  with  the  attention  of 
your  soul.  I  used  often  to  pray  that  God  would 
awaken  you  and  send  you  one  earnest  thought 
before  it  should  be  eternally  too  late." 

"  Thank  you  for  your  prayer,  dear  Pastor," 
Albert  replied  humbly.  "  It  is  answered  at  last. 
I  have  had  my  first  earnest  thought,  For  the 
first  time  in  my  existence,  I  feel  that  I  really 
have  a  soul." 

"  That  seems  passing  strange,"  Father  re- 
flected, "  when  you  have  been  such  a  long  time 
out  of  the  body." 

"  In  the  body,  out  of  the  body,"  Albert  de- 
clared, "  I  never  seemed  quite  real  to  myself  be- 
fore this.  I  am  just  beginning  to  live.  Oh!  Fm 
glad  it  wasn't  yet  too  late !  " 

"  Would  it,  could  it  ever  have  been  '  too  late,'  " 
asked  Albert  the  son.  "  While  God  lives,  can  it 
ever  be  too  late  for  a  soul  He  made  to  repent, 
and  come  back,  and  begin  to  live  in  Him  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  tell,"  Father  replied.  "  I  am  here 
in  hell  as  a  learner,  and  strangely  dazed  with  all 
this  that  I  see.  Only  from  my  inmost  self  some- 
thing responds  again  and  again  to  a  mighty 
psalm  of  unfolding  redemption  I  seem  to  hear, 
where  I  supposed  only  groans  and  curses  would  be 
known.     Can  you  not  catch  it  coming  from  all 


HELL'S  NEW  SONG  119 

these  haloed  groups?  Listen!  it  is  the  soft  be- 
ginning of  a  crescendo.  It  has  an  antiphonal 
refrain  and  my  soul  joins  in  the  refrain — 'His 
mercy  endureth  forever.'  " 

I  have  often  wondered  in  heaven  over  the  fine- 
ness of  ear  of  Father's  soul.  He  could  never  dis- 
tinguish one  note  from  another  in  all  his  mortal 
life.  He  could  with  some  mental  uncertainty 
differentiate  "  Yankee  Doodle,"  rendered  instru- 
mentally,  from  "  Old  Hundred "  by  a  dissimi- 
larity in  the  time.  He  would  often  hum  dear 
hymns  to  himself  in  a  pathetic  monotone.  None 
who  knew  him  doubted  that  the  New  Song  was 
sung  in  his  soul ;  yet  we  were  astoninshed  to  find 
him  a  choir  leader  in  heaven,  a  master  of  soul 
harmonies,  a  composer  whose  spontaneous  melo- 
dies other  spirits  were  glad  to  echo.  With  him 
we  listened  now,  and  sang  in  turn.  Hell's  dis- 
cords were  mercifully  held  from  our  ears,  as  we 
sang.  We  could  distinguish  the  calibre  of  each 
soul's  feeling.  No  two  believing  souls  in  all  hell 
seemed  to  have  mellowed  into  harmony  under 
exactly  the  same  experience,  yet  all  were  at  pitch 
and  in  touch  in  expressing  the  vibrant  ecstasy  of 
salvation  from  sin  and  sorrow ;  each  telling  its 
story,  whether  in  jublilant  tenor,  in  warbling 
treble,  in  pathos  of  contralto,  or  in  deep  tones  of 
soulful  gratitude  for  great  deliverance ;  the  whole 
harmonizing  into  the  one  dear  story  saved  ones 
tell  on  earth,  in  heaven,  in  hell.  Again  and  again, 
mingling    in    with    the    multiple    thread    of   this 


120  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

wondrous  narrative,  came  the  refrain  in  unison, 
"  O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord  for  He  is  good : 
because  His  mercy  endureth  forever."  This 
psalm  of  latest  history  began  faintly,  tremulously, 
as  though  almost  choked  with  the  diffidence  of 
hell's  contrition ;  but  it  grew  stronger,  drawing  in 
voice  after  voice,  swelling  with  glorious  confidence 
in  Christ's  power  to  save  unto  the  uttermost,  until 
hell  seemed  almost  ready  to  echo  with  its  world- 
wide sob  of  joy.  Then  the  lights  began  to 
fade,  and  with  tender  farewells  signalled  from 
star  to  star,  these  separate  groups  were  left  each 
with  its  task  for  God. 

"  Yes,  His  mercy  endureth  forever,"  Albert, 
our  trophy  of  grace,  confessed  to  us  then ;  "  but 
I  know  in  my  soul  that  I  have  had  a  narrow 
escape.  If  I  had  not  been  brought  to  take  a 
stand  for  God  this  time,  after  all  your  warnings 
and  entreaties,  and  after  what  I  saw  with  my  own 
mind,  I  believe  there  would  have  been  nothing 
else  before  me  but  the  hell  of  my  own  eternal 
indecision." 


THE  DEAREST  QUEST     121 


CHAPTER  VII 

Father  was  now  as  eager  as  a  boy  with  a  new 
aeroplane.  "  This  is  something  all  but  too  won- 
derful to  believe!"  he  would  exclaim  over  and 
over.  "  I,  too,  must  go  and  win  souls."  This 
seemed  to  be  the  common  impulse  of  all  our  con- 
verts at  once.  I  spoke  to  Albert  about  meeting 
Joy,  and  he  said,  "  I  never  so  longed  for  Alice  be- 
fore; but  I  am  determined  not  to  see  her  until  I 
have  accomplished  something  earnest." 

Father's  first  thought,  of  course,  was  for 
Harry.  When  I  told  him  what  Albert  had  said 
about  the  various  denominations  in  hell,  he  be- 
came possessed  with  the  idea  that  we  would  find 
Harry  in  the  membership  of  one  of  these.  "  My 
boy  was  never  drawn  to  evil  company  as  such,"  he 
contended,  "  and  he  would  most  surely  gravitate 
upward  to  the  best  company  hell  could  furnish. 
There  was  never  anything  so  morally  wrong 
about  Harry.  He  but  lacked  the  one  thing.  He 
seemed  incapable  of  developing  an  interest  in 
sermons  or  in  churches.  Surely,  ere  this,  he  has 
discovered  his  mistake.  And  if  he  should  happen 
upon  a  church  in  hell,  his  first  and  most  natural 
thought  would  be  to  join  it  as  a  matter  of  exper- 
iment, to  determine  if  that  might  not  work  out  in 
the  direction  of  a  reunion  with  us  all.  Harry  was 
always  so  bent  upon  experiments  and  devices.  I 
have  even  sometimes  thought  upon  earth,  that  if 


122  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Harry  could  have  invented  and  constructed  a 
church  of  wheels  and  cogs  and  motors,  with  a 
statue-like  graphophone  in  the  pulpit;  he  might 
indeed  have  been  enabled  to  become  interesteed  in 
religion.  He  seemed  always  so  entirely  absorbed, 
as  it  were,  in  the  mechanical,  the  external,  and  so 
entirely  obtuse,  not  averse,  to  the  spiritual  — 
poor  Harry ! " 

"  Perhaps  if  he  hasn't  joined  a  native  church," 
Albert  suggested,  "  we  may  find  him  connected 
with  one  of  the  lodges.  There  wouldn't  be  much 
difference  for  an  uplift." 

"Oh!  have  you  lodges  too  in  hell?"  I  cried 
with  new  interest. 

"  Every  device  to  make  the  ghastly  reality  of 
things  seem  different  from  what  it  is  "  Albert 
replied.  "  The  things  that  worked  on  earth  to 
keep  men  away  from  God  are  worked  for  all  they 
are  worth  in  hell." 

"  I  suppose  you  refer  for  the  most  part,  to 
such  minor  orders  as  the  '  Red  Men,'  the  •  Elks  ' 
and  the  '  Eagles,'  "  suggested  Albert  junior. 

Albert  senior  drew  us  three  close  together,  and 
spoke  confidentially,  almost  furtively.  "  I  regret 
to  say,"  he  acknowledged,  with  evident  trepida- 
tion, "  that  we  have  also  some  lodges  and  con- 
claves of  Free  Masons.  I  have  been  a  member, 
myself,  off  and  on.  They  aspire  to  run  the  whole 
shooting  match.  If  you  get  them  down  on  you, 
hell  will  be  made  hot  for  you,  sure  enough." 

It  was  impossible  not  to  feel  some  of  the  in- 


HELL'S  CIVIC  ORDERS  123 

fection  of  his  anxiety.  Very  cautiously  I  put  the 
question.  "  Do  you  happen  to  know  the  name  of 
any  of  these  lodges  of  Free  Masons?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  said ;  "  I  have  been  a  sort  of  man 
about  town  in  hell  for  a  century.  I  know  some 
of  their  lodges,  and  I  suspect  the  existence  of  a 
great  many  more  whose  very  name  is  kept  secret 
even  in  hell.  And  what  I  can't  tell  you,  there's 
a  man  named  Wilkinson  — " 

"  Wilkinson !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  Another  mu- 
tual acquaintance !  Is  he  a  spirit  with  as  many 
sides  as  there  are  people  to  meet,  a  social  genius 
intersphering  with  everybody,  almost  all  sorts  of 
a  man,  and  yet  not  very  definitely  committed  to 
anything?  " 

"That's  Wilkinson  to  a  hair!"  Albert  de- 
clared. "  Mine  must  be  the  same  one  you  know. 
There  couldn't  be  two  of  him." 

"  Alas,  poor  Phil !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  Reached 
hell  at  last,  after  being  on  the  point  of  conver- 
sion for  forty  years !  Well  he  could  tell  me  about 
Mystery  Lodge  from  Tippleton:  only  he  could 
be  counted  on  just  as  promptly  to  tell  them  all 
about  me." 

"  Perhaps  we  had  better  not  talk  about  him, 
or  he  will  be  turning  up,"  Albert  cautioned 
nervously.  "  A  more  universally  sympathetic 
fellow  there  never  was." 

"That's  true,"  I  agreed.  "Think  of  him 
dining  with  the  ministers'  meeting  at  noon,  and 
banqueting  with  the  rum  sellers  that  same  night !  " 


124  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  If  I  were  you,  I  would  let  him  come,"  Father 
counselled.  "  You  may  be  able  to  get  him  com- 
mitted to  a  Christian  life  at  last.  As  for  the  said 
Mystery  Lodge,  I  watched  over  you  in  Tippleton 
from  the  spirit  life  and  I  knew  of  a  few  things 
that  were  shaped  out  by  the  inner  circle  in  their 
lodge  room.  Let  the  whole  company  of  them 
come.  By  God's  help,  we  will  pull  through,  just 
as  you  did  in  Tippleton." 

A  milder,  gentler  being,  in  the  main,  has  not 
often  lived  than  my  father;  but  get  him  once 
aroused,  you  found  yourself  dealing  with  the 
spirit  of  Marston  Moor  and  of  Bunker  Hill.  It 
was  too  late  now  for  hesitation;  for  the  one  of 
whom  we  had  been  speaking  was  already  among 
us.  "  Wilkinson,  old  fellow,"  I  said  in  greeting, 
"  I  am  glad  to  meet  you  again.  I  only  regret 
the  surroundings." 

"  Yes,  it  seems  strange,"  Wilkinson  answered 
solemnly ;  "  I  did  not  look  to  meet  you  here." 

"  I  am  glad  to  know  that  you  are  conscious 
of  being  in  the  wrong  place,"  I  answered.  "  We 
are  here  to  set  before  you  a  door  of  escape. 
You  used  to  talk  very  impressively  about  your 
praying  mother,  and  how  she  died  imploring  you 
to  meet  her  in  heaven.  You  haven't  met  her  yet, 
have  you?  " 

"  I  wouldn't  want  to  meet  her  in  the  crowd  I 
find." 

"  I'm  glad  you're  not  pleased  with  the  crowd !  " 


THE  SAME  OLD  PHIL  125 

I  said.  "  I've  seen  you  in  some  pretty  tough 
crowds  in  our  time.  And  again  if  there  was  any 
particularly  good  crowd  gathering,  you  were 
quite  sure  to  be  with  us  therein.  Now,  wouldn't 
you  like  to  get  out  of  this  hell  crowd  and  into 
the  heaven  crowd  where  your  mother  is?  " 

"  Well,  Dominie,"  Wilkinson  answered,  "  you 
ask  me  an  honest  question,  and  I  suppose  you 
want  a  straight  answer.  I  always  did  enjoy  a 
variety  in  crowds.  You  remember  that  Saturday 
night  when  you  held  the  meeting  by  permission 
in  the  hotel  lobby,  and  I  was  with  the  crowd  that 
kept  the  glasses  chinking  all  the  time  in  the  bar- 
room. I  had  to  drink  and  drink  hard  that  night, 
to  keep  from  bolting  into  the  lobby  and  getting 
converted.  What  held  me  back  was  the  thought 
that  if  I  joined  your  crowd  then,  I  could  never 
come  back  to  the  other  crowd;  but  I  could  stay 
with  the  other  crowd  then  and  get  with  your 
crowd  on  Sunday.  And  now  if  there  is  any  way 
for  me  to  get  to  heaven  after  all,  why,  I'd  like 
well  to  be  with  mother,  and  with  some  of  the  good 
Methodist  preachers  I  used  to  know;  but  then 
I'd  have  to  leave  all  the  boys  down  here. 
They're  an  awful  tough  lot,  take  them  as  they 
come ;  but  somehow  they  mostly  like  me." 

"  Philip  Wilkinson,  you  seem  altogether  the 
kind  of  man  we  wish  to  find,"  Father  exclaimed 
eagerly.  "  When  you  have  given  your  whole 
heart  to  God,  you  wilfr  not  thereby  lose  your  in- 


126  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

terest  in  hell,  but  you  will  be  the  more  disposed 
to  use  all  your  points  of  contact,  that  you  may 
win  your  friends  for  heaven." 

I  introduced  Father  and  explained.  "  He 
knows  you  fairly  well,"  I  said,  "  for  he  was  in- 
terested in  us  all  when  we  were  together  in  Tip- 
pleton.  You  remember  we  used  to  tell  you  the 
same  thing;  that  once  you  were  soundly  con- 
verted, you  could  help  us  swing  half  the  men  of 
Tippleton  into  the  kingdom  of  God." 

"  But  the  trouble  was  letting  loose  from  them 
all  to  make  a  start,"  Wilkinson  demurred.  "  Do 
you  remember,  Dominie,  when  I  had  the  pneu- 
monia, and  Dominy  Weems  was  away  at  confer- 
ence, and  the  whole  town  thought  I  was  dying, 
and  you  came  and  asked  me  if  I  couldn't  look  to 
Christ  as  my  Saviour,  and  I  made  out  to  speak 
and  said,  said  I,  '  I've  always  tried  to  do  my 
best '  ?  I  knew  I  was  lying  when  I  said  it,  for 
often  and  often  I  had  tried  to  do  my  worst.  And 
I  felt  that  the  Devil  had  hold  of  me  and  was 
dragging  me  down  to  hell.  And  I  was  afraid 
of  him  and  afraid  to  die ;  but  I  was  more  afraid 
of  the  fellows  down  on  the  street,  for  I  knew  they 
were  all  shaking  their  heads  and  saying,  '  Poor 
Wilkinson,  he'll  get  scared  now  and  get  religion.' 
I  was  ashamed  to  get  converted  on  my  dying  bed, 
so  I  just  pulled  myself  together  with  a  tremen- 
dous effort  and  I  said  to  myself,  '  I  won't  die :  I'll 
live;  and  when  I  get  sourfd  and  well,  I'll  go  to 
the  next  revival  meeting  and  get  religion  in  a  first- 


THE  GREATER  FEAR  127 

class  way.'  Yes,  sir;  I  believe  you  saved  my 
life  that  time,  which  wasn't  what  you  were  most 
trying  to  do;  but  you  just  scared  me  into  using 
my  will  power  and  getting  well.  But  when  I 
got  well,  I  found  myself  more  tied  to  the  fellows 
than  ever,  and  I  never  could  take  the  same  interest 
in  going  to  church  again.  It  seemed  as  if  my 
heart  had  got  harder  than  it  ever  was  before,  and 
I  think  I  must  have  sinned  away  my  day  of 
grace." 

I  acknowledged  to  him  that  I  had  entertained 
a  corresponding  anxiety  about  him.  "  I  could 
see  the  change  after  your  sickness,"  I  said, 
"  and  I  often  reproached  myself  very  deeply  for 
not  having  been  more  strenuous  with  you  when 
you  gave  me  that  evasive  answer,  apparently  al- 
most with  your  dying  breath.  As  in  too  many 
other  cases,  I  shrank  from  agitating  you  with 
argument  and  solemn  warning,  lest  the  physician 
should  think  I  had  hastened  your  end." 

"  It  wouldn't  have  done  any  good,"  Wilkin- 
son's ghost  assured  me.  "  I  was  more  scared  of 
getting  converted  just  then,  than  of  coming  to 
hell.  What  would  all  the  boys  say  of  me  for- 
ever after,  was  the  biggest  thought  in  my  mind." 

"  My  dear  sir,"  Father  interposed,  "  it  seems  to 
me  that  your  main  trouble  was,  and  still  is,  that 
God  is  less  real  to  you  than  your  companions. 
You  lack  a  deep  conviction  of  sin.  What  right 
have  you  to  elect  the  society,  and  join  in  the  prac- 
tices of  wicked  men  when  God  calls  you  to  re- 


128  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

pentance  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  heaven's  fel- 
lowship? I  begin  to  think  you  are  almost  the 
very  greatest  sinner  I  have  ever  known.  With 
a  soul  so  rich  in  generous  impulses  that  nearly 
two  centuries  of  vice  have  not  been  able  entirely 
to  choke  them  out,  with  a  clear  view  of  duty, 
and  a  frank  acknowledgement  of  your  need,  you 
have  the  audacity  to  turn  your  back  upon  the 
God  who  made  you,  the  Saviour  who  died  for  you, 
the  mother  in  heaven  praying  for  you,  simply 
from  the  lack  of  that  manhood  which  would  en- 
able you  to  wrench  your  soul  half  an  inch  away 
from  the  friendships  of  hell.  You  are  lonely 
even  every  moment  for  the  better  friends  you 
have  known  on  earth  or  whom  you  might  know 
in  heaven.  Choosing  hell,  you  have  only  hell, 
and  you  find  it  narrow  and  dull  as  any  prison  cell. 
Choose  heaven,  and  you  would  still  have  hell 
thrown  in,  with  all  its  friendships  to  be  used  for 
God  in  winning  men  away  from  hell.  Alfred 
Wilkinson,  I  solemnly  pronounce  you  the  greatest 
sinner  and  the  greatest  simpleton  I  have  ever 
known." 

"  I  guess  you're  about  right,  Dominie,"  Wil- 
kinson admitted  humbly,  "  only  you  don't  know 
it  all.  A  good  man  like  you  can't  know  all  the 
hold  sin  has  on  a  sinner.  It  seems  like  the  more 
I  hate  it  the  more  I  love  it.  When  I  kept  the 
saloon,  years  before  your  son  came  to  Tippleton, 
I  used  to  notice  that  nobody  craved  liquor  like 
the  man  whose  stomach  was  burning  up  with  it. 


CURSED  YET  FASCINATED       129 

And  it  was  still  worse  with  the  awful  disease  that 
comes  with  the  other  sin.  The  fellows  that  had 
it  couldn't  think  or  talk  about  anything  else  but 
the  very  indulgence  that  caused  it." 

"  God  pity  you ! "  Father  cried,  and  hid  the 
face  of  his  soul. 

I  asked  Wilkinson  what  he  intended  to  do  about 
it.  "  You  see  so  clearly  exactly  where  you 
stand,"  I  said ;  "  you  have  not  even  the  poor  re- 
lief of  lying  to  yourself  about  it.  Now  are  you 
going  to  try  and  stand  this  to  all  eternity,  or  will 
you  put  your  case  just  now  into  the  hands  of 
the  Great  Physician,  Doctor  Jesus  ?  " 

Wilkinson's  ghost  stood  dazed  before  me.  "  I 
wish  you  had  talked  to  me  like  that  a  good  deal 
more  in  Tippleton,"  he  slowly  said  at  last.  "  But 
here  —  what's  the  use  of  gospel  talk  in  hell  ?  " 

"  More  use  perhaps,  than  there  was  of  it  in 
Tippleton,"  I  dared  to  answer.  "  May  God  for- 
give me  for  having  been  so  unfaithful  to  you  in 
life;  and  yet  the  whole  rum-soaked,  liquor- 
license-besotted  lot  of  you  seemed  so  coolly  satis- 
fied, often,  with  your  unanimous  stand  for  Satan, 
a  preacher  would  lose  heart,  and  true  words  would 
die  on  his  lips.  But  it  does  seem  to  me  you  are 
nearer  the  kingdom  of  God  than  I  ever  found  you 
before.  You  and  I  have  both  been  learning  a 
thing  or  two,  I  imagine.  I  never  found  a  place 
on  earth  more  receptive  of  the  gospel  than  the 
state  penitentiary  at  Churchville.  And  since  I 
have  been  led  to  come  among  you  all  here,  I  be- 


130  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

gin  to  think  that  hell  may  be,  of  all  others,  just 
the  place  for  gospel  talk.  And  more  than  that, 
of  all  the  people  I  have  so  far  met  in  hell,  you 
seem  to  be  the  proper  and  most  hopeful  subject 
for  it.  I've  seen  you  almost  saved  apparently 
half  a  dozen  times  over  on  earth,  Wilkinson,  and 
I  just  cannot  bear  not  to  see  you  fully  saved  this 
time.  Tell  me  truly  right  out  of  your  heart, 
wouldn't  you  like  to  be  saved?  " 

Perhaps  it  was  because  he  was  taken  by  sur- 
prise to  have  the  offer  of  salvation  pressed  upon 
him  in  hell;  whereas  he  had  always  been  on  his 
guard  against  being  led  ever  more  than  about  so 
far  on  earth,  or  perhaps  because  he  had  really 
found  the  air  of  hell  somewhat  freer  than  that 
of  Tippleton;  at  any  rate,  he  showed  stronger 
and  more  genuine  emotion  than  I  had  ever  seen 
in  him  before.  "  God  knows,"  he  said,  "  an  hour 
never  goes  by  that  I  don't  wish  most  bitterly  that 
I  had  let  myself  be  saved  before  I  ever  came 
here ;  but  now  it's  too  late.  You  gentlemen  mean 
well,  but  you  don't  really  know  hell.  All  the 
oceans  of  all  the  planets  couldn't  wash  the  putrid, 
black  depravity  out  of  our  souls.  All  the  fires  of 
all  the  suns  couldn't  burn  it  away.  We've 
damned  ourselves  too  deep  for  the  arm  of  mercy 
to  reach  us.  There  couldn't  be  a  ladder  long 
enough  for  us  to  climb  by  to  get  out  of  hell.  If 
one  of  us  should  begin  to  climb  now  and  climb  till 
the  Andromeda  nebula  gets  to  be  a  solar  system, 
there  would  still  be  an  ocean  of  despair  above  us 


HONEST  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS     131 

pressing  us  down  and  no  sunlit  waves  anywhere 
at  the  top  of  it.  You'll  say  we  ought  to  pray; 
but  how  can  a  man  hear  himself  pray  when  a 
knell  sounds  in  his  ears  loud  enough  to  echo  back 
and  forth  across  the  universe,  •  Too  late !  Too 
late!     Too  late!"' 

I  was  proud  of  Joy's  husband  at  this  moment. 
Albert  had  been  keeping  in  the  background  and 
looking  anxious  since  Wilkinson's  appearance. 
Now  he  came  in  boldly  and  said,  "  Philip  Wilkin- 
son, look  at  me !  " 

"  Who  are  you,  sir?  "  Wilkinson  began,  and 
then  as  he  focussed  his  attention  and  began  to 
recognize  our  companion,  it  was  wonderful  to 
watch  the  successive  waves  of  deep  emotion  sweep 
across  the  surface  of  his  soul.  "  I  believe  you 
are  that  man  Detwiler,"  he  said.  "  But  oh !  what 
a  change!  I  know  you;  and  yet  I  hardly  know 
how  I  know  you.  The  last  time  I  saw  you  you 
were  so  flimsy,  and  now  you've  sort  of  grown  and 
rounded  out.  You  had  two  or  three  voices  that 
whistled  and  sputtered  and  rumbled  all  at  once; 
now  you  speak  strong  and  clear.  You  had  as 
many  combinations  as  a  kaleidoscope,  and  here 
you  are  just  one  natural  complexion,  only  shin- 
ing as  if  there  were  a  soft  light  inside.  What 
has  come  over  you?  If  Christian  Science  has 
done  all  this  — " 

"  Christian  Science  has  done  nothing  for  me," 
Albert  replied.  "  But  I've  been  converted  truly 
to  God,  and  I've  just  begun  really  to  live." 


132  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  What?  "  cried  Wilkinson.  "  When?  Where?  " 

"  Not  three  hours  ago,"  was  the  answer ; 
"  right  here  in  hell." 

Wilkinson  trembled  all  over.  "  Offended 
God !  "  he  cried,  "  there's  hope  for  me !  " 

When  he  had  fully  found  peace  in  believing, 
we  began  to  talk  with  him  about  what  was  upper- 
most in  our  minds  at  the  time  of  his  appearance. 
Albert  explained  to  him.  "  These  gentlemen,"  he 
said,  "  the  Presters,  father  and  son,  are  concerned 
to  reach  the  other  son,  Harry  Prester.  He's 
going  to  be  hard  to  get  at,  because  he  has  almost 
only  one  point  of  approach:  that  is  machinery; 
and  none  of  us  is  particularly  mechanical.  I 
knew  him  when  he  was  a  young  married  man. 
He  talked  machines,  he  saw  nothing  but  ma- 
chines, his  wife  said  he  dreamed  machines.  You 
could  almost  hear  the  wheels  whirring  in  his  head. 
He  was  neither  bad  nor  good.  He  was  neither 
wise  nor  unwise.  He  was  just  motion  mad.  His 
father  thinks  he  may  have  drifted  into  one  of  our 
Presbyterian  or  Episcopalian  churches  from 
force  of  early  or  matrimonial  association,  and  I 
suggested  that  he  might  have  compromised  by 
joining  a  lodge.  So  we  thought  of  you  as  a  man 
of  wide  acquaintance,  and  we  hoped  that  we 
might  get  hold  of  some  tie  of  association  that 
might  pull  him  to  us." 

"  This  was  their  idea,  not  mine,"  I  demurred. 
"  Harry  never  was  a  '  joiner.'  I  could  not  even 
get  him  interested  in  the  labor  movement.     But 


IS  THIS  FREEMASONRY?         133 

something  my  friend,  Detwiler,  told  me  about 
Free  Masons  in  hell  aroused  my  deep  interest  to 
know  if  old  Mystery  lodge  had  been  perpetuated 
here.  We  have  their  two  or  three  best  men  in 
heaven,  but  they  don't  keep  up  the  lodge  there. 
They  say  the  church  of  Christ  is  free  masonry 
enough  for  them  now." 

"  Do  you  think  I  ought  to  give  up  my 
lodges  ?  "  Wilkinson  asked  humbly.  "  I  was  hop- 
ing I  could  use  them  to  bring  more  men  around 
to  the  truth." 

"  Just  so  you  are  not  drawn  into  anything 
sneaky  or  underhanded,"  I  answered.  "  You  are 
in  a  better  position  to  judge  about  that  than  I." 

"  I'd  like  to  try  it,"  he  said,  "  but  you'll  have 
to  pray  for  me  hard.  Yes,  I'm  sorry  to  say,  old 
Mystery  is  flourishing  in  hell." 

"  I  feared  so,"  I  responded  sadly.  "  After 
Detwiler  told  me  of  the  existence  of  the  order  in 
these  regions,  my  apprehension  was  aroused  for 
that  lodge  in  particular.  Certainly  a  number  of 
its  members,  at  the  time  of  my  last  acquaintance 
with  them,  seemed  fairly  ripe  for  hell.  That  was 
due  in  the  main,  no  doubt,  to  this  particular 
lodge's  flagrant  violation  of  one  of  the  principles 
of  Free  Masonry  that  no  liquor  seller  should  be 
admitted  to  the  order.  But  then,  I  suppose  this 
was  no  greater  irregularity  than  that  some  of  the 
most  prominent  members  of  the  Tippleton  Pres- 
byterian church  should  have  been  habitual  signers 
of  applications  for  license." 


134  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Dear  Dominie,"  Wilkinson  said,  "  I've  just 
got  to  be  confidential  with  you,  lodge  or  no  lodge  ; 
and  I  might  as  well  tell  you  that  the  few  genuine 
men  we  had  in  Mystery  lodge  when  you  knew  it 
were  just  the  decoy  ducks  for  the  rest  of  us  to 
set  out  and  make  use  of.  They  really  didn't 
know  Free  Masonry  as  we  practiced  it.  They 
thought  we  were  going  by  the  book.  They  were 
never  really  initiated.  Each  two  of  us  had  his 
one  of  them,  and  we  knew  how  to  strain  his  con- 
science a  little  here,  and  warp  his  judgment  a  lit- 
tle there,  and  by  hook  or  by  crook,  we  managed 
to  keep  the  thing  pretty  near  unanimous  for 
whiskey  and  the  devil.  Sometimes  it  was  nervous 
work,  until  we  got  Dominie  Weems  into  the  lodge 
as  a  sort  of  bell  wether  for  all  the  lambs  to  fol- 
low. After  that  it  went  easier.  Oh,  many's  the 
laugh  we've  had  in  hell  over  the  remarkable  gam- 
bols Weems  would  eagerly  go  through,  hoping 
our  order  would  find  him  a  bigger  church  some- 
where. Do  you  remember  that  anniversary  ser- 
mon Mystery  came  to  hear  him  preach  on  a  cer- 
tain Sunday  night,  and  how  he  kept  his 
congregation  waiting  ten  minutes  longer,  after 
they  had  waited  twenty  minutes  already,  until  the 
lodge  got  there,  just  so  we  might  send  back  to 
the  lodge  room  and  get  his  apron  to  wear  over  his 
long  coat  and  preach  in?  And  you  remember 
how  he  had  old  Mack  lay  the  corner  stone  of  the 
new  church  with  appropriate  Masonic  ceremonies. 
Everybody  knew  what  that  was  for." 


A  FATEFUL  SEPARATION         135 

"  Oh,  well,  now,  Wilkinson,"  I  protested,  "  you 
know  Brother  Weems  had  the  most  frankly  con- 
scientious motives  in  working  the  Masons  for  a 
better  charge.  He  told  me  himself  that  he  had 
to  join  the  order  because  he  couldn't  live  on  the 
salary  he  was  receiving  in  Tippleton.  What 
could  you  expect,  when  one  of  his  professors  at 
Drew  told  him  that  if  he  wished  to  get  on  in  the 
Methodist  ministry  he  had  better  join  the  Ma- 
sons ?  He  used  to  say  to  me,  '  Brother  Prester, 
we  are  simply  compelled  to  take  the  world  as  we 
find  it.  It  is  our  duty  to  aspire  to  the  largest 
sphere  of  usefulness  we  can  fill,  and  it  is  the  Ma- 
sonic order  that  can  obtain  it  for  us.'  Really 
Brother  Weems  seemed  to  me  in  many  ways  a 
true-hearted  Christian.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
comforting  partners  to  pray  with  I  ever  found 
on  earth." 

Here  Father  reminded  us  that  we  had  digressed 
somewhat  from  the  problem  of  finding  Harry. 
Wilkinson  suggested  that  we  should  divide  our 
party,  and  while  Father  and  Joy's  husband  might 
visit  the  churches,  he  and  I  might  explore  among 
the  lodges.  An  association  of  mechanical  engi- 
neers, he  said,  was  about  the  only  organization 
with  which  he  had  had  no  recollection  of  ever 
having  had  any  relations,  but  he  thought  if 
Harry  had  ever  happened  to  join  any  other  kind 
of  a  thing,  he  could  probably  get  on  a  trace  of 
him  in  some  way. 

The»younger  Albert  expressed  his  desire  to  fol- 


136  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

low  the  good  news  back  to  heaven,  to  talk  it  over 
with  his  mother,  and  Wilkinson's  mother  also ; 
then  return  and  work  with  our  little  brotherhood 
of  the  Heavenly  Vision.  So  we  separated,  and 
Wilkinson  and  I  were  very  gladly  starting  on  our 
tour  of  observation  —  for  Wilkinson,  always  the 
most  obliging  of  men,  now  in  the  first  joy  of  the 
great  change  which  had  come  into  his  life,  showed 
the  greatest  eagerness  to  do  us  some  service  — 
but  the  sudden  appearance  of  Jeanie  brought  us 
to  a  standstill. 

"  You  are  going  into  danger,  dear  boy,"  she 
said.     "  I  want  you  to  let  me  go  with  you." 

"  Now,  dear  girl,"  I  protested,  "  if  there  really 
could  be  any  danger,  that  would  be  the  strongest 
argument  why  I  should  on  no  account  take  you 
with  me.  Has  not  Jehovah  said,  '  Certainly,  I 
will  be  with  thee  '  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  Paul  tells  us  to  have  no  fellowship 
with  the  unfruitful  works  of  darkness,"  she  re- 
plied with  a  counter  quotation.  "  Why  should 
you  put  yourself  again  in  the  power  of  these  men 
who  have  so  many  ways  of  accomplishing  things. 
What  could  you  ever  accomplish  with  them?  " 

"  Just  now  I've  helped  to  win  this  one  for 
God,"  I  replied  cheerfully. 

Jeanie  regarded  Wilkinson  somewhat  doubt- 
fully. I  think  she  is  almost  the  quickest  of  her 
sex  in  her  estimates  of  people,  and  perhaps  the 
slowest  to  change  them.  I  have  often  declared, 
and  perhaps  already  in  this  narrative,  that  it  was 


A  WOMAN'S  WAY  137 

only  my  great  good  fortune  which  prevented  her 
from  conceiving  a  profound  suspicion  of  me  when 
first  she  set  eyes  on  me.  If  this  had  happened, 
no  subsequent  amendment,  or  entire  correctness 
of  deportment  could  quite  have  won  her  confi- 
dence. This  distrust  would  have  been  manifested 
only  by  a  certain  guardedness  of  manner  in  the 
course  of  much  gracious  kindness,  but  it  would 
have  been  like  a  well-set  mine  ready  to  explode  on 
proper  occasion. 

So  she  greeted  poor  Wilkinson  now  with  much 
frankness  of  encouragement,  and  perhaps  he  did 
not  gather  from  her  tones  that  she  was  in  reality 
waiting  to  see  these  new  hopes  of  him  justified 
later  on. 

"  We're  surely  glad  of  your  company,"  he  de- 
murred, "  only  we  just  don't  quite  know  how  the 
Masons  will  take  it  for  us  to  bring  a  lady  along. 
You  know  our  order,  from  its  earliest  times,  has 
rather  fought  shy  of  women." 

"  Yes,  because  we  could  see  through  you  too 
well,"  Jeanie  responded  promptly.  "  If  we  are 
really  to  find  out  something,  don't  you  think  I 
had  better  come?  Nat  never  could  see  anything 
but  just  what  people  would  show  him  on  the  sur- 
face, until  days  afterward." 


138  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 


CHAPTER  VIII 

In  the  leisure  of  a  resting  spell  in  heaven,  talk- 
ing things  over  with  the  angels,  Father  has  given 
us  the  details  of  his  connection  with  the  churches 
of  hell;  as  there  was  not  full  opportunity  to  do 
when  the  rush  of  events  brought  us  together  again 
in  the  enemy's  country. 

"  In  what  way  do  you  account  for  this,  that 
churches  exist  in  hell  at  all?  "  he  asked  Albert,  as 
they  were  hesitating  which  way  to  wish  them- 
selves. "  What  purpose  do  they  fulfil  for  the 
inhabitants  who  support  them?  " 

"  I  suppose  somewhat  the  same  as  some 
churches  on  earth,"  was  the  reply.  "  They  make 
certain  neighborhoods  in  hell  respectable.  They 
afford  idle  spirits  a  means  of  passing  the  time. 
They  develop  an  endless  variety  of  enjoyable 
bones  of  contention.  They  give  a  flavor  of  sanc- 
tity to  gossip  that  otherwise  would  grow  dull  for 
lack  of  contrast.  Incidentally  they  offer  an  op- 
portunity for  the  display  of  talents  of  oratory 
and  music  in  vague  connection  with  certain  sacred 
themes  which  still  retain  a  languid  interest  for  the 
minds  of  the  elite  of  perdition." 

"  But  this  I  cannot  understand,"  Father  per- 
sisted, "  if  churches  are  maintained  in  hell,  and 
the  people  go  regularly  and  sit  under  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel,  and  the  doctrines  of  grace  are 
proclaimed,  how  can  there  fail  to  be  genuine  con- 


HELL'S  CLERICAL  FORCE         139 

versions,  and  thus  hell  should  even  be  found  to 
defeat  its  own  ends." 

"  Yes,  but  you  know  you  can  have  churches,'' 
Albert  answered,  U  and  not  preach  the  gospel  at 
all  except  in  distant  allusion ;  and  you  can  ignore, 
or  slur  over,  or  undermine,  or  squarely  oppose 
the  doctrines  of  grace,  and  still  call  it  a  church. 
I  am  sure  we  have  seen  the  thing  demonstrated 
often  enough  in  Christendom." 

"  But  from  where  in  this  nether  world  do  they 
procure  their  ministers?  Surely,  they  must  needs 
train  new  ones  from  among  bright  young  men  of 
the  world  who  fail  of  being  saved." 

"  I  am  sorry  to  say  the  most  part  of  them  get 
their  training  and  their  practice  in  the  ministry 
before  they  come  here,"  Albert  replied.  "  Some 
come  from  Andover  and  some  from  Union. 
There  are  one  or  two  from  Princeton,  and  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School  is  not  without  its  repre- 
sentation. I  perceive  that  there  is  a  ministers' 
meeting  going  on  now.  What  do  you  say  to  go- 
ing there  first,  and  getting  in  touch  with  a  num- 
ber of  denominations  at  once?  " 

Father  has  tried  to  describe  to  us  the  sensa- 
tions he  experienced  when  he  found  himself 
entering  a  large  assembly  of  ecclesiastics  in  hell. 
Not  only  ignorant  Hard  Shell  Baptist,  Free 
Methodist,  Morning  Watch,  and  Zionite  ranters, 
but  men  of  theological  acumen  and  varied  learn- 
ing were  there.  Writers  of  books  were  particu- 
larly  in   evidence:     Erasmus,   translator   of  the 


140  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

New  Testament;  Rabelais,  most  distinguished  of 
clerical  rakes;  Dean  Swift,  poor  Christless  cynic 
of  a  tiresome  age;  Malthus,  traducer  of  God's 
economy;  zealous  Theodore  Parker  also,  and  nu- 
merous would-be  reconstructionists  of  Christian- 
ity, concerned  in  the  evolution  of  a  religion  for 
the  advanced  mind,  free  from  the  irrational  ele- 
ment of  a  definite  belief  in  God.  Father  was 
not  surprised  to  find  a  promiscuous  rabble  of 
scapegraces  in  orders  whose  brief  newspaper 
notoriety  had  grown  out  of  the  attractions  of  the 
wine  cup  or  of  other  men's  wives  or  money,  con- 
spicuous as  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  of  min- 
isterial probity;  but  what  astonished  him  was  the 
array  of  men  once  high  in  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity: metropolitans,  popes,  cardinals,  archbishops, 
and  denominational  leaders ;  two  of  the  Gregorys, 
the  strenuous  Innocent  III,  the  sportive  Boni- 
face, diplomatic  Wolsey,  forceful  Richelieu,  mer- 
ciless Pole,  and  uncompromising  Laud,  together 
with  a  distinguished  company  of  Spanish  inquisi- 
tors, New  England  persecutors,  and  Russian 
Synodists. 

Father's  first  impulse  was  to  retire  modestly 
and  discreetly  from  an  assembly  of  churchmen  so 
far  outranking  him.  His  confusion  was  still  fur- 
ther increased  when  he  had  distinguished  several 
who  had  even  been  men  of  fine  appearing  charac- 
ter under  earth's  most  favorable  conditions,  only 
lacking  the  one  thing  needful,  a  vital  faith  in 
Christ.     Still  more  astonishing,  there  were  some 


A  MINISTERS'  MEETING  141 

who  had  been  conspicuously  used  of  God  from 
Balaam  down.  On  recognizing  some  belonging 
to  this  most  eminent  class  of  all,  Father's  soul 
was  seized  with  a  violent  trembling.  "  Why," 
he  exclaimed,  "  are  these  grand  men  the  deni- 
zens of  hell,  when  one  whose  life  can  boast  such 
small  results  as  mine  has  found  a  home  in 
heaven?"  Then  our  Lord  reminded  him  of  his 
own  word,  "  Notwithstanding,  rejoice  not  in  this, 
that  the  spirits  are  subject  unto  you,  but  rather 
rejoice  that  your  names  are  written  in  heaven." 
"  I  am  one  of  the  last  that  were  to  be  first,"  he 
said  to  himself  proudly  yet  humbly,  and  decided 
to  stay  and  take  in  the  program. 

This,  for  the  occasion,  proved  to  be  a  setting 
forth  by  a  gifted  Episcopalian  divine  of  the  "  In- 
credibility of  a  Virgin  Birth."  Its  theory  was 
unfolded  in  humble  acquiescence  with  the  infalli- 
bility of  the  gospel  according  to  Darwin.  Be- 
fore he  was  through,  Father  says  he  began  to 
feel  that  it  would  almost  be  presumption  in  God 
himself  to  question  the  Sublime  Hypothesis. 
Indeed,  the  trend  of  the  leader's  thought  was  such 
as  to  leave  very  little  room  for  God  in  His  world, 
all  occasion  for  any  special  activity  on  His  part 
being  entirely  and  satisfactorily  filled  by  the  un- 
aided workings  of  an  impersonal  process.  Yet 
the  whole  exposition  was  put  forward  in  seemly 
and  pious  sounding  language.  It  was  not  so 
much  what  the  man  said,  much  less  the  manner  of 
its  saying,  that  made  it  atheistic. 


142  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

In  the  languid  discussion  that  followed,  there 
was  not  much  noticeable  effort  to  combat  any- 
thing. No  one  seemed  to  have  any  serious  con- 
victions to  express,  one  way  or  another.  The 
object  of  each  appeared  to  be  to  scintillate  some- 
thing glittering  and  not  too  definite,  mingling 
compliment  and  criticism  in  equal  proportions. 
One  said  that  perhaps  it  did  not  matter  so  much 
whether  Christ  was  of  virgin  birth,  or  the  child 
of  wedlock,  or  of  that  humbler  origin  to  which 
the  accredited  facts  of  the  case  seemed  to  point ; 
the  main  purpose  of  his  life  may  have  been  to 
demonstrate  the  natural  rather  than  the  superna- 
tural incarnation  of  Deity  in  us  each.  "  I,  my- 
self," he  blandly  enlarged,  "  I,  myself,  am  God 
manifested,  individualized,  forming  into  definite 
shape  and  tangible  reality.  Jesus  was  thus,  in 
some  respects,  a  striking  and  outstanding  individ- 
ualization of  Deity ;  though  born,  no  doubt,  like 
any  other  man." 

Then,  at  the  close  of  the  discussion,  they  re- 
peated the  Apostles'  Creed  in  concert  with  a  cer- 
tain lackadaisical  unction,  and  after  one  of  the 
prelates,  on  request,  had  prayed,  using  the  Greg- 
orian collect  appointed  for  Trinity  Sunday,  each 
hurried  away,  absent-mindedly  passing  by  the 
others. 

"  What  puzzles  me,"  Father  confessed  to  his 
guide,  "  is  the  problem  of  how  they  can  hold  their 
congregations   together   with   this   line   of   talk. 


PROFOUND  UNCERTAINTY        143 

If  nothing  is  definitely  certain,  what  is  the  use 
of  preaching  about  it  ?  " 

"  And  yet  somehow,"  Albert  replied,  "  the  laity 
of  perdition  itself  would  a  little  rather  not  have 
things  made  too  definite;  still,  the  clergy  never 
talk  quite  the  same  in  the  pulpit  as  in  the  minis- 
ters' meetings.  This  we  have  heard  was  esoteric. 
Before  their  congregations  they  talk  to  suit  the 
market." 

Father  became  familiar  with  this  ministers' 
meeting  during  the  troubled  course  of  his  brief 
pastorate  in  hell,  attending  it  faithfully  in  the 
wistful  endeavor  to  work  in  a  little  vital  Chris- 
tianity, and  he  has  given  me  some  idea  of  the  gen- 
eral run  of  topics  they  had  under  discussion. 
"Is  the  Bible  Readable  Literature?"  "The 
Evolution  of  God."  "  Improbable  Immortality." 
"  The  Irrationality  of  the  Punitive  Idea." 
"  Why  Do  We  Pray?  "  "  The  Unknowableness 
of  the  Absolute."  "  Imperfections  of  the  Uni- 
verse." "  Is  Happiness  Attainable?  "  "  The  Un- 
reality of  the  Moral  Intuition."  "  Origin  of  the 
Idea  of  God."  Such  topics  as  these,  interspersed 
with  reviews  on  thought  books  of  agnostic  sci- 
ence lately  issued,  supplied  the  straw  to  be 
thrashed  over  by  these  clerical  gatherings. 

Father  said  he  used  often  to  wonder  if  it  was 
really  a  ministers'  meeting  or  that  of  an  infidel 
club.  I  assured  him  that  I  had  sometimes,  upon 
early  acquaintance,  to  rub  my  eyes  and  look  again 


144  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

at  the  neckwear  in  the  ministers'  meeting  at  the 
city  of  my  first  New  England  pastorate.  After- 
wards, when  I  became  somewhat  used  to  their  way 
of  talking,  I  learned  to  understand  them  better, 
and  found  numbers  of  them  high-souled  Chris- 
tian men. 

Father  undertook  to  have  a  serious  talk  with 
the  Vicar  of  Bray  at  one  of  these  meetings  while 
they  were  waiting  for  the  chairman.  "  Do  you 
think  it  is  of  so  much  consequence  what  a  man  be- 
lieves or  professes,"  the  versatile  vicar  replied, 
"  so  long  as  his  life  is  fairly  correct  ?  " 

"  On  the  contrary,"  Father  stoutly  asserted, 
"  I  am  altogether  old-fashioned  enough  to  think 
that  the  most  damnable  thing  in  this  universe  is 
false  doctrine  flippantly  set  forth." 

"  This  seems  a  roundabut  way  to  reach  the 
churches,  much  more  my  poor  wandering  boy," 
Father  complained  to  Albert  when  that  first  min- 
isters' meeting  attended  in  hell  adjourned  and  so 
suddenly  melted  away. 

"  I  clutched  at  one  or  two  of  them,  but  in 
vain,"  Albert  replied,  ruefully.  "  I  have  been 
trying  to  think  what  we  shall  do  next,  to  get  at 
the  churches.  The  man  I  think  of  most  hope- 
fully is  old  Deacon  Spindler.  You  remember  he 
knew  Harry.  He's  in  hell,  I  know,  for  I  caught 
a  glimpse  of  him,  one  time,  slipping  in  the  back 
way  into  a  spooks'  dance  hall  with  that  other 
woman  he  got  to  living  with  back  on  the  Trace 


A  PASTORATE  IN  HELL  145 

Ford  of  Mud  Creek  after  his  third  wife  died." 

Thus  it  was  that  Father  came  to  receive  his 
call  to  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
church  of  Jeroboam's  Holl  in  hell.  Deacon 
Spindler  appeared,  still  cherishing  the  affection 
which  the  humblest  and  most  unworthy  often 
dared  to  manifest  for  Father ;  even,  sometimes,  in 
an  embarrassing  manner.  There  was  really  only 
one  thing  so  radically  wrong  in  the  deacon,  a 
man  of  an  excellent  family,  and  of  a  rather  cling- 
ing disposition.  His  joy  at  meeting  father  again 
found  expression  in  a  prompt  invitation  that  he 
should  preach  at  the  Holl.  "  Our  church  is  with- 
out a  pastor  just  now,"  Spindler  explained,  "  and 
I  am  chairman  of  the  supply  committee." 

Of  course  they  were  charmed  with  father's 
preaching.  His  style  is  so  scholarly,  urbane, 
classical,  quaintly  earnest,  yet  never  too  personal. 
I  suppose  they  were  carried  away  by  an  impulse ; 
at  any  rate  they  gave  him  a  call  which  the  com- 
missioners assured  him  was  unanimous.  Father 
never  was  capable  of  looking  askance  at  a  pas- 
toral call,  and  the  very  pitifulness  of  this  one,  he 
assured  us,  appealed  irresistibly  to  his  tenderness. 

"  And  yet  you  did  not  really  have  to  accept 
it,"  I  reminded  him.  "  You  might  simply  have 
held  it  as  pastor-elect,  by  agreement  with  their 
presbytery." 

"  I  wished  to  strengthen  such  modicum  of  life 
as  might  be  left  in  the  church,"  father  answered. 
"  They  seemed  almost  half  inclined  to  relinquish 


146  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

having  a  church,  and  they  needed  someone  who 
would  manifest  a  confidence  in  their  better  im- 
pulse." 

"  But  Father,"  Jeanie  asked,  "  we  are  all  won- 
dering what  it  was  in  their  call  which  recom- 
mended it  to  you  at  all." 

"  There  was  nothing  to  recommend  it.  I  ac- 
cepted it  in  sheer  pity,"  father  replied.  "  Your 
mother  knows  that  I  did  the  same  thing  more 
than  once  on  earth.  They  appeared  to  be  in  so 
deplorable  a  condition  that  I  deemed  I  could  do 
them  scant  harm,  at  any  rate.  There  was  a 
church  quarrel  in  customary  progress  among 
them,  and  they  were  also  weakened  almost  to  the 
point  of  sheer  extinction  by  the  competition  of 
local  churches  of  other  denominations.  I  hoped 
that  they  might  be  somewhat  humbled  by  all  the 
conceivable  and  inconceivable  congregational 
tribulations  through  which  they  had  been  pass- 
ing, and  that  so  I  would  find  them  grateful  for 
self-denying  help,  and  prepared  to  receive  real 
good.  They  truly  bore  evidence  of  experiencing 
a  hopeful  dissatisfaction  with  past  spiritual  at- 
tainments and  a  wistful  outreach  of  soul  for  some- 
thing vital;  and  I  thought  how  much  easier  it 
might  be  to  preach  the  gospel  in  hell  through  a 
regularly  established  church,  holding  to  the 
Westminster  standards,  than  to  continue  work- 
ing, as  it  were,  out  of  doors." 

"  But  did  the  gospel  preaching  keep  on  pleas- 
ing them?  "  I  queried. 


INFERNAL  SECTARIANISM        147 

"  Yes,  for  a  time,"  Father  answered.  "  My 
claim  to  have  come  from  heaven  drew  large  con- 
gregations, and  for  a  while  there  were  evidences 
of  a  quickening  in  the  life  of  the  church  which 
caused  me  great  hopes.  But  presently  I  over- 
heard one  or  two  thoughts  after  a  service  which 
awakened  me  most  rudely  from  my  happy  dream. 
It  became  increasingly  evident  that  what  I  had 
taken  for  quickened  spirituality  was  but  little 
more  than  an  unholy  glee  in  the  minds  of  the 
Presbyterians  over  the  drawing  of  people  from 
other  churches  in  the  Holl.  I  began  to  suspect 
that  they  were  regarding  me  and  my  message 
somewhat  in  the  light  of  an  asset,  and  of  a  shrewd 
church  investment.  I  would  think  these  Monday 
thoughts,  after  the  times  of  our  solemn  assem- 
blies; but  when  I  was  preaching  to  audiences  so 
vastly  larger  than  any  I  had  ever  addressed  on 
earth,  and  they  would  listen  so  circumspectly,  so 
respectfully,  and  join  in  with  the  worship  with 
such  propriety  and  decorum,  I  could  not  find  it 
in  my  heart  to  suspect  anything  so  unworthy  in 
them.  Yet  I  could  not  rid  myself  of  the  suspi- 
cion that  at  the  least  they  were  inclined  to  listen 
to  my  preaching  and  solo  singing  too  much  as 
the  tribes  of  the  Jews  in  captivity  were  inclined 
to  listen  to  the  prophesyings  of  Ezekiel,  that  I 
might  be  unto  them  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one 
that  hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and  can  play  well  on 
an  instrument,  for,  truly,  they  heard  my  words, 
but  they  did  them  not.     I  found  that  my  fame  as 


148  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

a  preacher  was  spreading  to  other  parts.  I  was 
invited  by  the  pastor  of  one  of  the  great  metro- 
politan churches  to  occupy  his  pulpit  on  a  certain 
Sunday  in  hell — " 

"  Why,  do  people  observe  Sunday  there  ?  " 
mother  cried,  interrupting  Father's  account,  that 
time  in  heaven. 

"  Yes,  somewhat  after  the  fashion  in  which 
they  observed  Sunday  on  earth,"  Father  replied. 
"  There  was  not  a  very  great  deal  in  that  to  inter- 
fere with  the  pleasures  of  hell." 

"  But  how  did  they  separate  the  time,  and  call 
it  a  day  ?  "  asked  my  boy,  Thoughtful. 

"  I  think  it  began  by  reason  of  the  theories  of 
some  Seventh  Day  Baptists,"  father  replied. 
"  Finding  themselves  in  hell  through  trusting  in 
their  sectarian  observances  rather  than  trusting 
in  Christ,  some  of  them  elected  to  keep  strict 
watch  of  earth  time  still,  and  observe  the  seventh 
day.  Thus  the  other  sects  around  them  were 
stirred  to  make  a  convention  of  the  first  day, 
earth  time,  and  to  observe  that  punctiliously  for 
argument's  sake." 

"  But  you  are  not  telling  us  of  your  experi- 
ence, preaching  in  the  grand  pulpit,"  I  suggested. 

"  Oh,  that  was  too  dreadful !  "  Father  declared. 
"  I  can  hardly  bear  to  think  of  it.  It  transpired 
that  a  new  choir  was  being  installed  in  its  duties 
in  this  church  at  the  very  time  that  I  was  to 
preach.  On  approaching  the  assembly  I  became 
aware  of  a  certain  program  or  bulletin  of  the 


IS  THIS  WORSHIP?  149 

service  which  was  being  disseminated  and  which 
set  forth  with  great  dignity  and  succinctness  the 
names  of  the  musical  composers  whose  produc- 
tions were  to  be  rendered  on  that  occasion,  and 
whether  they  were  to  be  sung  or  played  in  E  flat, 
or  D  sharp,  or  B  minor,  as  well  as  also  the  names 
of  the  musical  artists  belonging  to  the  new  choir 
who  were  thus  to  distinguish  themselves.  The 
program  incidentally  mentioned  that  the  Reverend 
Jonathan  Prester,  the  silver-tongued  celestial 
visitant  of  Jeroboam's  Holl  would  make  the  ad- 
dress. My  attention  was  also  very  kindly  called 
by  the  pastor  before  we  took  our  places  in  view 
of  the  congregation  to  an  item  of  news  in  the  last 
issue  of  the  Tophet  Echo  with  regard  to  the 
rumor  that  the  nominating  committee  of  the  Cen- 
tral Congregational  Church  of  Broad  Gauge 
City,  a  church  at  that  time  in  search  of  a  pastor, 
intended  to  be  present  at  this  service,  led  there 
by  interest  in  the  rising  fame  of  the  Reverend 
Prester. 

"  The  early  part  of  the  service  was  rendered 
by  the  new  choir,"  so  Father  continued,  "  with 
some  slight  occasional  assistance  from  the  pastor 
and  congregation,  and  consumed  all  the  time 
taken  by  earth's  sunrise  in  progressing  from  Bos- 
ton to  Chicago.  The  music  seemed  to  be  all  of 
it  upon  sacred  themes,  so  far  as  the  themes  of 
it  could  possibly  be  made  out;  and  as  music  it 
seemed  to  contain  all  the  elements  of  art,  except 
that  it  apparently  expressed  nothing.     There  was 


150  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

no  clear  appeal  to  the  understanding;  conse- 
quently the  heart  was  not  stirred.  It  had  di- 
minuendo, crescendo,  pause,  staccato,  allegro, 
andante,  everything  almost  but  a  meaning.  It 
was  vox  et  prceterea  nihil.  The  time  spent  in  it 
was  empty  of  aught  but  sound.  While  it  was 
proceeding,  I  found  it  impossible  to  think  con- 
nectedly on  the  subject  matter  of  my  sermon;  so 
I  was  reduced  to  prayer  and  to  observing  the 
ways  of  the  congregation,  assembled  and  assem- 
bling. I  noted  the  deference  accorded  certain 
spirits  who  had  achieved  prominence.  People 
took  position  according  to  their  standing  in  the 
appreciation  or  the  envy  of  those  around  them. 
I  could  see  their  heartburnings  of  envy,  and  hear 
all  their  angry  or  slavish  thoughts.  An  insight 
and  an  understanding  were  given  me  greater  than 
I  had  ever  known  before.  I  noted  the  anxious 
strain  for  the  finest  attainable  appearance  with 
which  each  individual  or  each  family  strove  to  ad- 
vertise its  station  and  its  competitive  success.  I 
became  conscious  of  the  hidden  things  of  the  souls 
and  lives  before  me.  Hypocrisy,  deceit,  estrange- 
ment, hatred,  pride,  vainglory,  carping  criticism, 
lustful  desires,  and  an  infinite  unrest  of  evil  sim- 
mered in  the  heated  atmosphere  of  fevered  souls. 
I  began  to  hear  an  inner  discord  in  all  the  smart 
effects  of  the  music  that  was  being  rendered, 
which  told  what  each  singer  was  really  thinking 
as  he  sang.  At  last,  after  I  had  thought  even 
for  the  tenth  time  that  they  would  have  the  ser- 


DISGUISED  TEMPTATION         151 

mon  come  in  next,  a  woman  spirit  was  put  for- 
ward to  sing  a  solo.  This  time  the  sense  could 
not  wholly  be  hidden,  for  I  recognized  at  once 
Franz  Abt's  own  '  Oh,  Ye  Tears!'  'Ah!'  I 
thought,  *  this  is  the  song !  How  much  hell  needs 
tears ! '  I  looked  eagerly  to  see  what  the  effect 
upon  the  congregation  would  be.  A  change  in- 
deed came  over  many  of  them,  but  it  was  not  the 
softening  for  which  I  hoped.  It  was  more  a 
shallow  wave  of  admiration,  and  when  my  own 
sight  cleared  to  the  ability  to  scan  them  more 
closely  I  realized  that  it  was  a  sort  of  sexual  ad- 
miration. Then  I  turned  my  soul's  gaze  upon 
the  singer,  to  whom  I  had  been  content  simply 
to  listen  hitherto.  Oh,  I  cannot  tell  you  what  I 
saw!  An  enchantress  so  bedizzened,  decollette, 
bared  to  the  view,  and  shamelessly  enticing,  made 
up  and  partially  attired  to  tempt  men  while  she 
sang  mincingly  of  holy  things !  A  sickening  re- 
vulsion of  feeling  came  over  me.  I  realized  that 
I  myself  was  being  tempted,  even  as  Jesus  was 
tempted  upon  the  mountain  top,  by  the  attraction 
of  a  great  career  as  a  leading  divine,  a  plan  of 
compromise  for  the  saving  of  all  hell  wholesale 
by  means  of  a  moderate  deference  to  Satan. 
What  could  I  do?  I  covered  my  soul,  and  fled 
from  the  assembly." 

"  But,  Great,  Great,  Great  Grandpapa !  "  anx- 
iously interposed  our  youngest,  Content,  "  what 
did  they  do  at  church  when  the  preacher  of  the 
da^  had  fled?" 


152  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  I  never  knew,"  he  answered  with  a  soul  shud- 
der. u  I  determined  in  that  hour  that  I  would 
willingly  plunge  to  the  bottom  of  the  lowest  dive 
in  hell  for  the  purpose  of  saving  a  lost  soul,  but 
I  would  never,  never  willingly  attend  one  of  their 
fashionable  churches  so  long  as  hell  remained  to 
hold  one.  That  resolution  I  have  kept  to  the 
letter,  for  I  was  only  at  one  when  haled  for  my 
trial  before  the  Presbytery." 

"  You ! "  we  all  exclaimed  at  once,  and  my 
Mother  asked,  "  Dear,  innocent  man !  what  could 
they  find  to  try  you  for?  " 

"  It  was  a  heresy  trial,"  Father  answered  hum- 
bly. "  In  order  to  make  the  situation  clear,  it 
is  necessary  that  I  should  relate  briefly  something 
of  my  later  experience  with  the  Holl  Church.  I 
went  back  to  them  more  than  ever  thankful  for 
the  forlorn  and  dispirited  condition  in  which  I 
had  found  them,  and  still  trusting  that  in  grati- 
tude for  my  success  in  setting  their  church  upon 
its  legs,  I  might  find  them  willing  to  let  me  lead 
it,  however  wobblingly,  upward  to  higher  things. 
One  line  of  thought  upon  which  I  had  been 
preaching  to  them  was  concerning  the  need  of  a 
genuine  revival  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion  in 
their  midst;  but  hitherto  I  had  not  been  able  to 
obtain  from  them  a  response  in  real  unison  of 
soul  on  this  subject.  The  few  who  were  inclined 
to  declare  themselves  definitely,  said  some  one 
thing,  some  another.  Spindler  was  for  revival, 
but  I  could  not  feel  that  he  was  moved  by  any- 


ANYTHING  BUT  REVIVAL         153 

thing  deeper  than  his  affection  for  me,  and  his 
hankering  after  excitement.  You  remember  how 
he  used  always  to  pray,  when  called  upon  in  meet- 
ing, that  the  Lord  would  send  down  his  Spirit 
and  *  shake  this  whole  commoonity.'  But  when 
the  time  for  special  evangelistic  meetings  came 
about,  and  Christians  first  were  asked  to  set  the 
example  of  repentance  and  turning  from  sin, 
Brother  Spindler  did  not  come  out  quite  clearly 
for  a  better  life;  but  on  the  contrary,  began  to 
gravitate  toward  a  back  seat,  and  became  pain- 
fully irregular  in  his  attendance.  In  the  minds 
of  the  other  outspoken  ones  of  my  church  in  Jero- 
boam's Holl  there  appeared  to  be  many  conscien- 
tious scruples,  grave  questionings,  lingering 
doubts,  disinterested  hesitations,  also  much  depre- 
cating concern  upon  the  subject  of  revivals  in 
general,  and  especially  upon  the  suitableness  of  the 
present  time  for  revival  effort.  I  found  that  an- 
other word  would  need  to  be  used  than  the  scrip- 
tural word,  'revival ' ;  else  no  unanimity  could  be 
arrived  at.  I  tried  the  man-made  paraphrase  of 
1  special  evangelistic  effort,'  which  I  began  to 
urge  strenuously  upon  them.  But  first  they  said 
they  thought  it  better  not  to  have  special  efforts, 
but  to  depend  upon  the  regular  services  and  the 
stated  means  of  grace ;  then  presently  the  session 
waited  upon  me  in  a  body  to  suggest  that  the 
regular  preaching  upon  evangelistic  themes  was 
beginning  to  cause  a  falling  off  in  attendance 
upon   our  services.     Especially  they   felt   reluc- 


154  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

tantly  drawn  to  deprecate  the  invitations  to  make 
public  decisions  for  Christ  with  which  I  had  en- 
deavored to  conclude  some  of  the  preaching  serv- 
ices. They  felt  that  these  decisions  were  more 
apt  to  be  genuine  and  lasting  when  made  in  pri- 
vate. Also  I  observed  for  myself,"  Father  said, 
"  that  whatever  might  be  the  manner  in  which  I 
endeavored  to  draw  the  gospel  net,  my  effort  in- 
variably resulted  in  evident  embarrassment  to 
the  church  members.  They  could  not  readily  or 
gracefully  set  the  example  of  acknowledging  a 
living  faith  in  Christ,  or,  indeed,  of  confessing 
any  definite  allegiance  to  the  doctrines  known  as 
evangelical.  Observing  reluctantly  the  strain  and 
awkwardness  brought  upon  the  regular  church 
services  by  any  public  appeal  for  conversions,  I 
suggested  to  the  session  and  to  the  congregation 
that  we  ought  at  least  to  institute,  in  addition  to 
these,  some  form  of  rescue  mission  work  for  the 
mass  of  unconverted  people  around  us.  Receiv- 
ing no  definite  response,  I  endeavored  upon  my 
individual  responsibility  to  lead  the  way  in  such 
outside  evangelistic  effort.  But  my  own  church 
members  shunned  the  time  and  place  of  all  such 
attempts,  and  soon  began  to  complain  that  they 
were  taking  my  time  and  strength  from  my  regu- 
lar pastoral  work  and  pulpit  preparation.  The 
one  or  two  outcast  spirits  which  were  converted 
to  Christ  by  our  solitary  efforts  in  this  direction, 
Albert's  and  mine,  found  only  a  constrained  wel- 
come into  the  number  of  the  Holl  Church  people. 


STRANGELY  UNSUCCESSFUL      155 

They  were,  unfortunately,  not  of  the  social  class 
and  sphere  in  hell  to  cause  them  to  be  looked  upon 
as  desirable  additions  to  their  church.  I  began 
to  be  conscious  of  a  certain  subtile  divergence  of 
feeling  between  pastor  and  congregation  by  rea- 
son of  my  interest  in  such  people.  Simulta- 
neously I  had  been  endeavoring  to  develop  in 
their  prayer  meeting  a  line  of  supplication  for 
the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  but,  to  my 
dismay,  the  prayer  meeting  itself  went  into  a  pa- 
thetic decline  under  my  pastorate.  I  had  found 
this  almost  a  flourishing  part  of  their  church  life ; 
at  least  so  it  had  seemed  at  the  beginning  of  my 
pastoral  relation  with  them.  This  was  one  of  the 
things  that  drew  me  to  them  in  the  start,  and  in- 
spired me  wih  some  hope  for  their  future  that  the 
prayer  meeting  was  well  attended  and  that  many 
seemed  disposed  to  take  part  in  it ;  only  there  was 
that  in  its  exercises  which,  by  some  means,  con- 
tinually reminded  me  of  a  saying  of  a  certain 
Methodist  divine  of  the  old  school  not  infre- 
quently repeated  at  the  period  of  my  boyhood  to 
the  effect  that  •  the  prayers  of  Presbyterians  were 
cold  enough  to  freeze  hell  over.'  Truly,  the  pub- 
lic efforts  in  prayer  of  these  particular  Presby- 
terians of  Jeroboam's  Holl  in  hell  seemed  some- 
what designed  to  fulfill  that  especial  purpose. 
They  were  so  formal,  so  stereotyped,  so  smirk  in 
their  self-satisfaction,  that  they  made  it  difficult, 
at  times,  to  believe  one's  self  in  a  division  of  God's 
cosmos  where  anything  was  confessedly  in  need 


156  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

of  improvement.  I  recall  one  of  them,  Rorer  by 
name,  whose  prayers  even  seemed  to  have  a  cer- 
tain ring  of  defiance  in  them,  as  though  he  were 
saying  in  undertone,  '  Stand  back,  Almighty ;  you 
can  do  nothing  till  I  get  through.' 

"  This  reminds  me,  Nathaniel,"  Father  di- 
gressed, "  this  Rorer's  name  seemed  in  some  way 
to  be  associated  with  that  country  place  in  Penn- 
sylvania called  Serenity,  where  you  found  your 
Jeanie.  He  came  to  us  at  the  Holl  by  letter  from 
a  much  more  pretentious  church  of  our  denomina- 
tion, almost  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  rising 
tide  of  our  prosperity.  I  asked  him  if  he  had 
known  you  on  earth,  and  he  denied  the  sugges- 
tion; but  Albert,  here,  knew  him  and  assured  me 
that  he  had  had  some  converse  with  you  about 
him  prior  to  his  own  conversion  in  hell." 

"  Father,"  I  asked,  "  did  this  Rorer  carry  him- 
self quite  erect,  with  a  courageous  bearing  some- 
thing like  a  snake  that  is  prepared  to  strike  and 
anticipate  any  blow,  or,  at  the  worst,  meet  it  half 
way?  " 

"  Just  so,"  he  replied,  "  and  I  have  other  rea- 
sons for  thinking  he  exercised  a  sinister  and  ser- 
pentine influence  upon  the  course  of  my  ill-starred 
pastorate.  But  to  return  to  the  subject  of  our 
prayer  meetings;  one  and  another  voice  became 
mute,  as  though  by  some  strange  spell,  and  one 
and  another  form  came  to  be  missed  as  time  went 
on.  I  am  mentally  sure  it  was  not  because  I  up- 
braided them.     I  endeavored  not  to  let  them  ob- 


DEFENDERS  OF  THE  FAITH      157 

serve  how  much  their  prayers  and  remarks  sad- 
dened me.  But  I  could  not  pray  as  they  did,  and 
they  would  not  pray  as  I  did;  so  they  seemed 
to  lose  interest.  Only  Albert  and  the  one  or 
two  new  converts  God  gave  me  kept  on  taking 
part  in  the  meeting  with  growing  power  of  spir- 
ituality. At  last  there  came  a  prayer  meeting 
when  only  these  were  present  (although  Spindler 
also  could  be  dimly  perceived  hovering  near  in 
apparent  dejection),  but  at  its  close  came  the 
bearers  of  the  summons  before  the  Presbytery." 

"  Who  were  your  accusers  ?  "  exclaimed  Mother 
in  righteous  indignation.  "  Oh,  my  husband ! 
and  I  never  missed  you  from  heaven !  " 

"  I  have  been  living  in  both  worlds,"  Father  an- 
swered simply,  "  and  I  did  not  wish  to  sadden 
your  heart.  Besides,  it  would  have  been  impossi- 
ble to  bring  you  into  touch  with  hell,  until  God 
should  turn  your  own  thoughts  in  that  direction. 
One  complainant  was  a  neighboring  minister  by 
the  name  of  Raxton,  and  the  other  was  an  elder 
of  a  third  church  in  the  Presbytery." 

Something  in  Father's  tone  made  us  ask  if  it 
was  any  one  we  knew. 

"  It  was  that  son  of  Aunt  Fannie  McCracken," 
Father  said  quietly.  "  Hush !  do  not  allow  your 
mind  to  dwell  on  her,  or  she  will  be  here,  and  the 
dear  old  lady  will  be  sadly  disturbed.  Can  you 
recall  the  visit  he  paid  his  mother?  He  was  di- 
vorced from  his  wealthy  wife,  and  he  suffered 
from  spells  of  delirium  tremens,  but  he  was  sound 


158  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

in  his  orthodoxy  and  well  versed  in  the  Westmins- 
ter standards.  He  loved  only  one  thing  more 
than  to  defend  the  five  points  of  Calvinism." 

I  could  remember  him  better  than  the  others, 
for  it  was  again  in  the  summer  of  my  life,  when 
I  was  preaching  during  my  first  vacation  from 
the  theological  seminary  in  my  Father's  place  in 
the  Valley  of  Summer,  that  this  McCracken  came 
to  cheer  Aunt  Fannie  with  another  month's  visit. 
He  it  was  who  passed  judgment  upon  my  first 
crude  pulpit  efforts,  '  that  the  young  man  would 
do  better  if  he  would  quote  less  from  Carlyle  and 
Emerson  and  more  from  the  Bible.'  I  came  to  be 
very  grateful  to  him  for  that  in  after  years,  and 
I  was  sorry  now  to  hear  Father's  account  of  him 
in  hell.  He  told  us  McCracken  had  come  to  him 
at  the  first  meeting  of  their  infernal  Presbytery 
which  Father  attended.  He  had  heard  of  Father's 
claim  to  be  a  visitor  from  heaven  come  to  tell  lost 
spirits  of  a  larger  hope,  and  he  immediately  be- 
gan to  argue  the  doctrinal  bearing  of  such  a  con- 
ception. "  Your  evangel  is  fundamentally  op- 
posed to  Calvinism,"  was  his  sentence.  "  Where 
would  the  doctrine  of  election  go,  if  we  should 
admit  any  possibility  of  continued  probation? 
Did  not  God  from  all  eternity  foreordain  some  to 
eternal  life,  and  others  to  eternal  damnation?  " 

"  I  was  somewhat  taken  aback  by  this  chal- 
lenge," Father  recounted,  "  and  it  seemed  only 
such  a  short  time  since  I  had  been  arguing  from 
his  standpoint  with  Nathaniel  here  in  heaven,  I 


IS  THIS  CALVINISM?  159 

really  hardly  knew  how  to  meet  such  a  born  po- 
lemic in  argument  on  an  abstract  doctrinal  issue, 
so  I  cast  about  in  my  mind,  and  finally  asked 
him  point  blank  what  bearing  he  thought  the  doc- 
trine of  election  had  upon  his  own  chances  of 
eternal  happiness.  He  answered  me  with  aston- 
ishing frankness,  *  I  am  in  hell  by  praeterition,' 
he  said.  ■  God's  electing  grace  passed  me  by 
from  all  eternity.  He  was  the  potter  and  I  was 
the  clay,  and  He  made  of  me  a  vessel  unto  dis- 
honor.' 

"  '  And  what  is  the  feeling  of  your  heart  to- 
ward God  for  this  ?  '  I  asked  him. 

"  '  I  have  no  right  to  indulge  any  feeling,'  he 
answered.  '  It  was  all  for  His  own  glory ;  for 
which  cause,  willing  to  show  His  wrath,  and  to 
make  His  power  known,  God  endured  me  with 
much  long  suffering,  a  vessel  of  wrath,  fitted  to 
destruction.' 

"  At  this  answer  I  was  all  but  speechless," 
Father  proceeded.  "  '  The  thing  which  fills  me 
with  wonder,'  at  last  I  ventured  to  suggest,  '  is 
that  you  continue  to  engage  in  the  worship  of 
such  a  God.' 

"  4 1  was  brought  up  to  go  to  church,'  was  his 
answer.  '  I  take  a  pride  in  doing  my  part.  I  be- 
lieve in  upholding  right  doctrine.  I  happened 
into  a  part  of  hell  where  shouting  Arminianism 
was  rampant,  and  there  was  a  struggling  Presby- 
terian church,  like  the  one  of  which  you  are  pas- 
tor, endeavoring  to  uphold  the  truths  of  Calvin- 


160  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

ism  and  the  sober  decencies  of  sedate  and  dignified 
worship.  They  desired  me  to  unite  and  be  an 
elder,  and  while  I  could  not  claim  to  be  converted, 
by  reason  of  never  having  been  elected  unto  re- 
pentance, I  said  to  them,  '  Anything  to  beat  the 
Methodists!*  and  joined  the  church  and  was  or- 
dained for  an  elder,  declaring  my  adherence  to 
the  system  of  doctrine  contained  in  the  West- 
minster standards,  and  my  determination  to  up- 
hold them,  a  determination  in  which  I  have  never 
flinched,  and  shall  never  flinch.' 

"  I  said  to  him,  '  I  am  fain  to  think  you  are 
the  very  wickedest  man  I  have  ever  known.' 

"  *  How  can  you  say  that  ?  '  he  demanded  in 
angry  astonishment. 

"  I  replied,  '  You  blame  all  your  depravity  on 
God's  predestination,  and  you  take  an  apparent 
pride  in  doing  more  for  God  than  you  think  God 
has  been  willing  to  do  for  you.  You  dishonor 
the  Saviour  who  died  for  you,  the  God  who  gave 
you  all  the  advantage  of  careful  Christian  train- 
ing, as  well  as  the  birthright  of  membership  in 
His  visible  church,  and  you  dishonor  and  affront, 
at  every  breath  of  thought  you  draw,  that  Holy 
Spirit  of  God  which  has  been  working  mightily 
for  your  salvation  through  generations  antedat- 
ing your  birth,  and  even  down  to  the  present  mo- 
ment, turning  your  mind  to  an  interest  in  spiritual 
things,  making  you  zealous  and  jealous  for  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints  —  imperfectly 
as  you  seem  to  have  grasped  it  —  and  working 


IONIAN  ELECTION  161 

mightily  for  your  conviction  of  sin  and  conver- 
sion to  holiness.' 

"  He  answered  in  a  set  and  deliberate  tone,  ■  If 
I  had  been  called  and  predestinated,  I  would  have 
gotten  converted  before  my  brain  softened  and 
death  came  to  vary  my  torment.' 

" '  How  do  you  surely  know,'  I  asked  him, 
'  that  you  are  not  predestined  to  be  saved,  even  in 
the  torment  of  hell?  ' 

"  '  That  is  your  heresy,'  he  answered.  *  You 
are  tempting  me  to  let  slip  the  faith  of  my  fath- 
ers. If  I  can  be  saved  in  hell,  and  anybody  can 
be  saved,  and  everybody,  most  likely,  is  destined 
to  be  saved,  in  the  end;  then  there  are  no  elect 
ones.  Where  every  one  is  elect,  none  are  elect. 
Consequently  your  whole  doctrine  is  subversive 
of  the  truth.' 

"  I  could  only  assure  him,"  Father  confessed  to 
us,  "  that  I  could  not  claim  a  positive  conviction 
as  yet  whether  all  souls  were  to  be  saved,  except 
that  I  was  beginning  to  wonder  if  God's  universe 
could  finally  be  considered  altogether  a  satisfac- 
tory success,  unless  its  history  should  culminate 
in  some  such  consummation.  But  I  could  not 
surely  see  why  there  might  not  be  an  election  for 
each  ason,  an  election  to  salvation  during  the  mor- 
tal life,  or  during  the  immortal  life.  i  Is  not 
this,'  I  asked  him,  '  the  key  to  the  whole  mystery 
of  predestination,  that  God's  election,  viewed 
from  the  standpoint  of  His  timeless  existence,  is 
practically  synchronous  with  our  choice  of  Him? 


162  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Is  it  strictly  scientific  ever  to  speak  of  Deity  in 
the  past  tense  ?  Christ  says,  *  Before  Abraham 
was,  I  am.'  If  you  had  chosen  to  submit  your 
will  to  God's  will  in  your  childhood,  or  in  the 
midst  of  any  one  of  your  drunken  domestic  sprees, 
you  would  have  found  yourself  one  of  God's 
elect.  You  can  make  a  practical  demonstration 
of  this  even  here  and  now  at  the  present  time, 
McCracken,'  I  urged.  •  Why  not  leave  theorizing 
for  a  moment  and  bow  your  soul  with  me  before 
God?  Wickedly  as  you  have  thought  and  lived, 
I  am  constrained  to  believe  there  may  be  mercy 
yet  for  you.  Salvation  is  still  for  you  to  choose 
or  to  rej  ect.     Turn  or  burn ;  which  shall  it  be  ?  '  " 

"And  still  he  did  not  repent?"  we  asked 
Father. 

"  I  am  grieved  to  suspect,"  Father  replied, 
"  that  McCracken  was  not  really  willing  to  be 
saved  at  the  expense  of  broadening  his  theology 
and  giving  up  sin.  What  he  said  to  me  was, 
1  You  are  no  true  Presbyterian.  Your  system  is 
Arminian  of  the  most  ultra  type.'  And  with  that 
he  left  me,  and  I  perceived  him  conferring  privily 
with  Rorer  and  with  several  members  of  the  Pres- 
bytery ;  but  he  intersphered  with  me  no  more,  until 
he  came,  after  that  almost  deserted  prayer  meet- 
ing, bearing  my  summons  before  the  Presbytery 
for  trial  on  the  charge  of  heresy." 


PRESBYTERIAL  PROCEEDURE      163 


CHAPTER  IX 

"  Tried  for  heresy ! "  Mother  exclaimed. 
"  You !  My  precious  husband !  My  lamb  in  the 
midst  of  wolves !  Of  all  the  people  in  the  world ! 
Did  they  mean  it  seriously  ?  " 

"  It  was  not  easy  to  take  it  with  suitable 
seriousness,"  Father  replied.  "  At  various  times 
in  private  and  at  the  ministers'  meeting,  I  had 
heard  members  of  this  same  presbytery  express 
almost  every  shade  of  belief  and  of  unbelief.  It 
was  difficult  to  foresee  how  they  could  succeed  in 
reaching  an  agreement  on  any  doctrinal  verdict. 
My  learned  protagonist  had  hardly  concluded  his 
statement  of  the  charge  against  me,  before  the 
whole  Presbytery  flew  into  a  state  of  interro- 
gation, protestation,  explanation,  asseveration, 
allegation,  reconsideration,  and  general  objurga- 
tion, with  regard  to  the  phraseology  of  the  in- 
dictment, the  subject  matter  of  each  of  its  counts, 
the  application  of  its  various  quotations  from  the 
standards  of  the  church  and  from  various  de- 
liverances of  their  general  assembly  (or  of  lower 
judicatories)  in  former  cases;  as  well  as  over 
various  and  sundry  questions  of  constitutional 
procedure  in  the  present  trial.  The  task  of 
their  moderator  was  rendered  more  difficult  by 
reason  of  their  post-mortem  facility  in  all  speak- 
ing at  once,  and  each  distinctly  and  simultane- 
ously following  all  that  the  others  had  to  say. 


164  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

This  made  it  exceedingly  difficult  at  times  to  de- 
termine which  rightfully  held  the  floor. 

"  One  distinguishable  party  opposed  the  charge 
against  me,  because,  as  they  ob j  ected,  '  It  tacitly 
concedes  the  strange  presumption  of  the  ac- 
cused that  this  is  hell.'  So  they  moved  to 
amend  the  phraseology  of  my  indictment  by 
striking  out  certain  words  and  phrases  here  and 
there  and  substituting  or  interjecting  certain 
other  words  and  clauses;  so  that  it  should  state 
as  a  whole  the  distinct  condemnation  of  the 
presbytery  upon  *  the  heresy  that  there  is  a  hell 
and  that  this  is  it.'  The  amendment  was  car- 
ried over  the  vigorous  and  long  continued  oppo- 
sition of  Raxton,  McCracken,  and  those  of  like 
belief  with  them  who  protested  that  such  an  ad- 
dition to,  and  wresting  of  the  purpose  of  the 
charge  would  involve  its  original  framers  them- 
selves in  an  invidious  charge  of  heresy. 

"  Then  some  one  moved  that  my  whole  trial 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  a  judicial  commission ;  as 
to  conduct  it  in  public  would  inevitably  embarrass 
many  members,  in  forcing  them  to  express  per- 
sonal convictions  or  hesitancies  of  belief  which 
they  would  prefer  not  to  make  public ;  even  if  it 
should  not  result  in  doctrinally  incriminating 
each  member  of  the  presbytery  in  the  opinion  of 
certain  other  members.  This  motion  was  carried ; 
but  the  effort  to  select  such  a  judicial  commis- 
sion proved  abortive,  by  reason  of  each  member 
having  a  majority  against  his  election  and  eligi- 


DIVIDED  COUNSELS  165 

bility  to  a  place  on  the  committee  as  being 
above  suspicion  in  his  orthodoxy.  By  sheer 
necessity  a  motion  to  reconsider  was  carried,  and 
the  presbytery  resolved  itself  into  a  committe  of 
the  whole. 

"  A  great  time  having  thus  been  taken  up  in 
coming  back  to  the  point  where  they  were  at 
the  beginning,  it  occurred  to  some  one  to  pro- 
pose that  they  proceed  to  examine  the  accused. 
Here  the  presbytery  found  itself  in  difficulties 
again,  some  thinking  best  first  to  examine  wit- 
nesses to  establish  the  truth  or  falsity  of  such 
and  such  erronious  and  heretical  utterances  as 
were  charged  against  me  ever  having  been  pro- 
mulgated by  me,  while  others  contended  that 
time  would  be  saved  by  giving  me  an  opportunity 
to  plead  guilty  or  not  guilty,  of  denying  or 
admitting  that  these  expressions  of  opinion  were 
indeed  my  own,  and  explaining  to  the  presbytery 
by  what  course  of  internal  reasoning  I  could 
conscientiously  hold  such  convictions  and  recon- 
cile them  with  the  doctrines  of  the  Presbyterian 
confession.  Then  several  members  began  to 
protest  at  once  and  with  vehement  reiteration, 
that  if  I  were  allowed  to  speak  before  the  wit- 
nesses for  the  prosecution  were  examined ;  I  would 
inevitably  prejudice  the  minds  of  many  in  favor 
of  my  new  theology.  The  contrary  part,  how- 
ever, clung  to  their  opinion,  and  there  was  much 
searching  of  precedents,  and  much  arguing  upon 
certain  rulings  and  interpretations  contained  in 


166  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Hodge's  compendium;  until  Presbytery  was 
threatened  with  a  deadlock,  and  the  chair  was 
appealed  to  for  its  decision,  which  was  averse  to 
hearing  me  first.  Then  a  motion  to  overrule 
the  ruling  of  the  moderator  was  put  forward; 
but  the  moderator  refused  to  entertain  the  motion, 
and  declined  to  vacate  the  chair  in  order  that 
the  motion  might  be  put  by  another.  Thereupon 
the  Stated  Clerk  solemnly  declared  the  moderator 
to  be  exceeding  his  prerogatives,  proving  his 
declaration  by  reference  to  the  Form  of  Govern- 
ment, and  Rules  of  Procedure,  and  finally  moved 
the  impeachment  of  the  moderator  and  the  elec- 
tion of  some  other  in  his  place.  This  led  to  a 
forensic  contest  so  stormy  and  protracted  that 
there  was  imminent  danger  of  the  Presbytery 
splitting  into  two  halves  and  dismembering  me 
between  them,  each  faction  being  unwilling  to 
waive  the  gratification  of  going  on  with  my  trial. 
Finally  a  compromise  motion  was  proposed  that 
I  and  the  witnesses  against  me  should  be  examined 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  this  motion; 
although  with  some  demurring;  was  finally  car- 
ried by  force  of  sheer  exhaustion. 

"  It  was  hard  to  follow  the  examination  of  the 
witnesses  while  myself  subjected  to  the  most  varied 
and  simultaneous  questioning;  but  I  remember 
most  distinctly  the  testimony  of  elder  Rorer,  who 
when  called  to  the  witness  stand  came  with  great 
apparent  reluctance,  protesting  against  the  in- 
vidiousness  of  being  required  to  testify  against 


A  SEARCHING  EXAMINATION      167 

his  own  pastor.  They  asked  him  how  long  he 
had  known  me  and  what  his  motives  had  been 
in  joining  the  Holl  church  after  my  pastorate 
had  begun,  and  whether  he  had  ever  known  any 
one  by  our  name  in  this  or  the  mortal  life,  and 
what  his  own  doctrinal  bias  had  been,  and 
whether  in  his  eldership  on  earth  over  the  little 
Mount  Latitude  Church  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
village  of  Serenity,  he  had  ever  given  expression 
to  views  endorsing  the  doctrine  known  as  that  of 
the  Millenial  Dawn,  and  finally,  after  much  ex- 
planation and  evasion,  and  some  objection  on  the 
part  of  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution,  he  was 
brought  to  answer  the  question  whether  he  had 
ever,  in  public  or  in  private,  and  on  what  and 
how  many  occasions  heard  me  declare,  and  also 
with  what  varieties  of  expression,  with  what 
guarding  of  points  and  shadings  of  meaning,  my 
belief  in  the  proposition  that  men  could  be  saved 
from  hell;  even  if  this  were  hell;  by  long  de- 
layed repentance  toward  God  and  faith  toward 
Jesus  Christ.  Also  he  was  examined  to  determine 
if  these  pulpit  deliverances  of  mine  had  seem- 
ingly been  given  out  for  the  purpose  of  sub- 
verting the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  great 
Presbyterian  church. 

"  To  this  last  question  the  witness  replied  with 
a  defiant  protest  that  he  was  on  the  stand  to 
state  facts,  and  not  to  reveal  his  own  inner 
sentiments  and  opinions  with  regard  to  what  he 
had  become  cognizant  of :  that  no  one  could  com- 


168  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

pel  him  to  incriminate  his  own  pastor  in  this  man- 
ner. So  in  effect  the  questioners  were  quite  sat- 
isfied of  Rorer's  conviction;  and  turned  their  at- 
tention somewhat  languidly  to  other  witnesses, 
finding  more  interest  apparently  in  the  cross  ex- 
amination of  the  plaintiff  which  was  progressing 
simultaneously;  only  when  my  heart  would  warm 
to  an  earnest  setting  forth  of  the  vital  truths  of 
eternal  salvation  in  Christ,  many  of  them  would 
feel  impelled  to  increase  the  hubbub  of  calling  and 
questioning  one  and  another  possible  or  impos- 
sible witness  for  the  prosecution;  as  if  to  dis- 
tract attention  from  what  I  was  trying  to  say." 

"  Poor  man  !  What  an  ordeal !  "  was  our  in- 
voluntary exclamation. 

"  Yes,"  Father  replied,  "  I  was  reminded  some- 
what of  the  examination  on  his  confession  of  a 
belief  in  future  probation  through  which  poor 
Nathaniel  here  was  put  by  the  Rapidan  presby- 
tery. Only  this  was  as  much  more  strenuous  as 
hell  could  make  it.  They  asked  me  all  about  my 
earthly  ministry,  and  if  I  had  ever  been  up  be- 
fore presbytery  on  a  similar  charge — " 

"  Which  you  could  emphatically  deny." 
Mother  interjected. 

"  They  were  also  particular  to  inquire," 
Father  continued  smilingly,  "  if  I  had  ever  been 
subjected  to  Universalist  influence,  either  in  my 
New  England  childhood,  or  during  my  short 
pastorate  over  the  ancestral  church  at  Scituate, 
which  afterwards  went  over  to  Universalism,  or 


A  FIRE  OF  QUESTIONS  169 

by  the  reading  of  literature  disseminated  in  the 
propaganda  of  that  cult.  To  all  of  these  ques- 
tions I  could  answer  that  I  had  been  distinctly 
opposed  to  liberalism  in  theology  in  all  its  forms, 
even  under  all  the  broadening  influences  of 
heaven  and  quite  up  to  the  very  recent  occasion 
of  my  sudden  call  to  witness  the  illumination  of 
mission  work  in  hell  in  response  to  my  son's  fer- 
vent wish  for  my  presence  in  the  nether  spirit 
world  at  that  moment.  At  this  they  inquired  if 
I  could  give  them  any  proof  that  there  was  a 
heavenly  state  different  from  their  own,  and  that 
I  had  actually  been  in  it,  and  that  there  was  such 
a  thing  going  on  in  hell,  (if  this  were  hell)  as 
real  bona  fide  mission  work  conducted  by  spirits 
sent  from  heaven.  In  reply,  I  asked  them  to  ex- 
amine Albert,  and  he  testified  most  manfully  of 
the  vision  of  heaven  which  broke  up  the  Christian 
Science  meeting,  of  his  own  conversion,  and  of 
the  panoramic  glimpse  of  hell's  mission  work 
which  came  soon  after,  together  with  my  sudden 
appearance  in  their  midst,  whereas  he  had  never 
seen  me  in  hell  before. 

"  The  two  who  had  been  won  to  Christ  by  my 
attempts  at  a  mission  in  connection  with,  but 
outside  of  the  Holl  church  also  acknowledged 
their  conversion  to  a  living  faith  in  Christ  and 
in  heaven;  and  when  interrogated  as  to  whether 
they  had  received  their  reward  of  entrance  into 
heaven,  and  if  so,  why  they  were  still  found  con- 
tinuing to  sojourn  in  what  they  had  of  late  been 


170  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

taught  to  look  upon  as  hell;  they  replied  that 
they  were  not  as  yet  deeply  concerned  over  a 
delay  in  their  getting  into  heaven;  since  heaven 
itself  had  already  gotten  into  them.  They  had 
found  Christ,  and  the  finding  of  Christ  was 
heaven.  But  they  had  already  also  perceived 
themselves  to  be  lifted  into  what  they  felt  to  be 
the  outer  fringe  of  heaven,  and  as  for  lingering 
in  hell  they  were  well  pleased  to  be  found  there  at 
this  present  time;  in  order  that  they  might  wit- 
ness in  behalf  of  the  one  who  had  brought  them 
to  a  knowledge  of  their  Saviour. 

"  Perceiving  that  they  were  not  likely  to  gain 
great  strength  of  unfavorable  impression  from 
the  examination  of  these;  the  prosecution  again 
called  me  to  the  stand  and  interrogated  me  as 
to  my  method  of  reconciling  the  belief  in  proba- 
tion in  hell  with  the  teachings  of  Scripture.  I 
replied  that  I  had  always  until  recently  sup- 
posed that  they  could  not  be  reconciled  the  one 
with  the  other,  and  that  only  since  I  had  come 
face  to  face  with  the  unyielding  and  radiant  fact 
of  God's  everlasting  mercy  moving  to  save  lost 
souls  in  hell  had  I  found  myself  put  to  it  to  cast 
about  mentally  for  some  method  of  interpreting 
Scripture  which  might  bring  me  out  in  theory 
where  I  found  myself  in  fact.  I  had  looked 
again  into  the  Bible  treasured  in  my  heart,  and 
to  my  joy  and  comfort  had  found  it  plentifully 
sprinkled  over  with  statements  of  God's  unchange- 
able attributes  of  mercy,  goodness  and  truth,  of 


THE  BIBLE  FOR  IT  171 

His  unwillingness  that  any  should  perish,  and  of 
His  intention  in  Christ  to  save  His  kosmos,  to 
bring  it  to  believe  in  His  son,  to  take  away  its 
sin,  to  reconcile  it  unto  Himself,  and  even  to  make 
of  it  a  new  sky  of  stars  and  a  new  earth  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness.  I  found  and  understood 
that  God  decrees  and  definitely  purposes  to  put 
all  things  under  Christ's  feet.  I  found  the  evi- 
dences in  His  word  that  He  Himself  is  working 
at  the  problem  of  evil,  and  that  He  expects  to 
solve  it  and  resolve  it,  and  to  work  out  a  de- 
monstration in  which  all  can  rejoice  at  last. 

"  From  Genesis  even  unto  Revelation,  I  had 
found  the  claim  that  God  rules  the  world  and 
His  kingdom  is  everlasting,  and  that  it  ruleth 
over  all,  and  that  it  will  ultimately  triumph  until 
the  deepest  voices  and  the  mightiest  thunderings 
of  heaven  and  earth  shall  make  proclamation, 
6  Alleluiah,  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reign- 
eth ! '  I  had  found  the  promise  that  God  would 
wipe  away  the  tears  from  off  all  faces,  and  the 
claim  of  Jesus,  *  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all 
unto  me.'  I  had  learned  to  believe  with  Paul  that 
the  renewing  power  of  God's  grace  would  work  a 
work  as  wide  as  the  deadening  power  of  man's  sin, 
and  that  as  in  Adam  all  die  so  in  Christ  shall  all 
be  made  alive.  So  I  was  beginning  with  Peter 
to  hope  in  a  final  restitution  of  all  things  which 
might  efface  from  the  heart  of  the  world  even  the 
last  scar  of  sin's  deep  wounding. 

"  Even  amid  the  gloom  and  the  horror  of  hell 


172  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

had  this  sustaining  vision  been  granted  me. 
Without  it,  I  told  them,  I  could  not  have  en- 
dured the  burden  of  my  pastorate  in  hell,  with 
its  hope  deferred  of  achieving  any  good.  I 
could  bear  to  strive  and  fail,  hoping  surely  at 
last  that  God's  world  would  be  no  failure ;  that  in 
the  final  winding  up  of  its  affairs,  no  part 
would  stand  forth  as  sheer  tragedy ;  but  that  all 
the  sin  and  shame  and  sorrow  of  it ;  the  malignity, 
the  misunderstanding,  the  hate  and  the  heart-ache 
alike  must  soften  and  resolve  itself  at  last  into 
the  melodrama  of  all  conquering,  all  compensat- 
ing grace. 

"  I  admitted  to  their  questioning  that  there 
remained  yet  many  mysteries  into  which,  with  the 
angels,  I  desired  to  look;  but  that  I  thought  I 
had  come  upon  the  key  to  the  darkest  of  these 
where  I  found  Albert  Detwiler  kneeling  in  peni- 
tence on  the  floor  of  hell.  Since  then  I  had 
been  looking  forward  to  see  God  showing,  more 
and  more,  the  reason  for  the  permission  of  evil 
in  the  world,  vindicating  it  by  the  greater  good, 
the  mellowed  joy,  the  broadened  thought,  the 
deepened  love,  the  ecstasy  of  pardon  in  extremis, 
the  strength  won  only  from  conflict,  the  patience 
of  the  ages,  the  trust  made  perfect  in  One  able 
to  save  unto  the  uttermost,  the  experience  of  an 
infinite  salvation  working  out  an  eternal  hope. 
I  acknowledged  to  them  my  deepening  conviction 
that  even  hell  itself  had  come  to  be,  in  order 


GOD'S  USE  FOR  HELL  173 

to  make  all  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the 
mystery  which  from  the  beginning  of  the  world 
hath  been  hid  in  God,  who  created  all  things  by 
Jesus  Christ ;  to  the  intent  that  now  even  as  never 
quite  before,  to  all  principalities  and  powers  and 
deepest  inquiring  minds  of  the  universe  might 
be  made  known,  through  the  ministry  of  grace  in 
hell  itself,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God,  accord- 
ing to  the  eternal  purpose  which  he  purposed  in 
Christ  Jesus.  So  of  late  I  had  been  growing  and 
stretching  and  rising  as  it  were  upon  tip-toe  to 
look  forward,  even  sometimes  as  through  a  blur 
to  tears,  to  that  '  one  far-off,  divine  event  toward 
which  the  whole  creation  moves  ' ;  and  to  foresee, 
in  faith,  that  consummation  when  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  not  only  of  things 
in  heaven,  and  things  on  earth,  but  also  of  things 
under  the  earth,  and  when  every  tongue  should 
confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  to  the  glory  of 
God  the  Father.  I  was  coming  to  believe,  as 
never  before,  that  of  the  increase  of  His  govern- 
ment and  of  His  peace  there  should  be  no  end,  that 
the  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands 
should  continue  to  grow  until  it  filled  not  only 
the  whole  earth,  but  the  whole  universe,  and  that 
God  would  overturn  and  overturn  and  overturn 
Satan's  dominion,  until  He  should  come  to  it 
whose  right  it  is  and  God  would  give  it  to  Christ 
and  His  dominion  would  be  from  sea  of  glory  to 
sea  of  long  despair,  and  from  the  river  of  life 


174  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

flowing  from  the  throne  even  to  the  ends  of  the 
immensity  of  infinite  existence,  to  which  there  are 
no  bounds  nor  ends. 

"  During  all  my  life  which  had  been  lived  on 
earth,  and  lately,  by  God's  wonderful  grace,  in 
heaven,  I  had  been  strangely  blinded  to  these 
plain  teachings  of  God's  revelation;  but  now 
since  seeing  with  my  own  astonished  sight  what 
Christ  could  do  for  a  repentant  sinner  in  the 
prison  house  of  hell,  I  had  come  in  one  rapturous 
bound  to  the  assurance  that  God  had  indeed  put 
all  things  under  Christ's  blessed  nail-pierced  feet ; 
and  that  no  heart  could  eternally  steel  itself 
against  His  love,  but  must  some  day  own  His 
sovereignty,  not  in  the  impotence  of  curbed  re- 
bellion ;  but  in  the  loyalty  and  unspeakable  grat- 
itude of  a  heart  won  over,  of  a  spirit  saved 
even  from  the  pit.  I  told  them  to  their  set  faces 
that  there  was  a  time  coming,  I  would  fain  be- 
lieve, decreed  in  God's  sure  plan,  when  even  they, 
from  the  all  but  hopeless  depths  of  the  hypocrites' 
portion,  would  be  snatched  as  brands  from  the 
burning,  and  when  their  natures,  most  grievously 
discordant,  because  only  a  shade  of  a  tone  out  of 
pitch  with  God's  anthem  of  salvation,  would  yet 
join  in  perfect  harmony  in  heaven's  new  song  at 
that  coming  saengerfest,  when  every  creature,  both 
which  is  in  heaven,  and  on  the  earth  and  also 
which  is  under  the  earth  and  in  the  sea,  even  all 
that  are  in  them  shall  be  heard  saying,  '  Blessing 
and  honor  and  glory  and  power  be  unto  him  that 


A  RULE  OF  INTERPRETATION       175 

sitteth  upon  the  throne  and  unto  the  lamb,  for- 
ever and  ever.'  Thus  I  had  come  to  this  prin- 
ciple of  interpretation,  only  wondering  why  I  had 
never  come  to  it  before,  that  when  we  seem  to 
find  diverse  truths  in  the  Word  of  God,  we 
should  endeavor  loyally  to  accept  them  each  to 
the  stretch  of  our  finite  reasoning  powers;  but 
we  should  strive  toward  a  unity  of  thought  by 
clinging  most  tenaciously  to  those  truths  which 
present  God  in  a  worthy  light,  which  carry  for- 
ward the  lines  upon  which  the  main  trend  of 
prophecy,  of  evangel,  and  of  history  have  re- 
vealed God's  unswerving  purpose,  and  we  should 
endeavor  to  reconcile  all  other  scriptural  affirma- 
tions with  these.  Over  against  the  parables  of 
the  wise  and  foolish  virgins,  of  the  wheat  and 
tares,  of  the  draught  of  good  and  evil  fishes,  of 
Dives  and  Lazarus,  of  the  unprofitable  servant, 
it  behooves  us  to  place  those  of  the  lost  sheep,  the 
lost  coin,  the  leaven,  the  '  other  sheep,'  the  pro- 
digal son,  together  with  all  the  gracious  invita- 
tions of  the  gospel,  Christ's  prayer  upon  the 
cross  for  his  enemies,  which  was  partly  fulfilled  at 
Pentecost,  the  universality  of  Paul's  soteriology, 
the  complete  consummation  of  the  work  of  re- 
demption revealed  to  John,  and  the  entire  lack 
throughout  the  entire  Bible  of  any  positive  as- 
surance of  a  term  to  probation  at  the  boundary 
line  of  physical  death ;  a  doctrine  which  if  it  were 
true  should  have  furnished  the  main  burden  of 
warning  in  the  Scriptures,  as  it  did  in  the  preach- 


176  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

ing  of  the  preachers  of  my  early  earthly  life- 
time. '  But  why  should  I  argue  with  you  only 
from  exegesis  ?  '  I  cried,  all  my  heart  going  out 
to  my  unhappy  prosecutors.  '  Here  are  the 
present  day  facts  even  staring  you  in  the  face. 
Here  are  these  three  converts  of  a  post-mortem 
gospel  who  assure  you  that  they  have  lately 
experienced  salvation.  One  hour  of  experience  is 
said  to  be  worth  a  thousand  years  of  theory.  I 
invite  you  each  to  make  trial  of  the  truth  of  my 
gospel  even  by  here  and  now  calling  truly  upon 
God  for  mercy  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
As  theologians,  deeply  interested  in  spiritual 
themes,  I  desire  to  draw  you  into  the  vital  reali- 
zation of  experimental  religion.  Intellectually 
you  are  none  of  you  far  from  the  kingdom  of 
God.  If  you  will  not  come  to  Christ  now  and  be 
saved;  what  is  there  left  for  you  but  the  bot- 
tomless hell  of  doubt  thatched  over  with  thin 
pretences ;  what  but  the  narrowing  hell  of  bigotry 
embittered  by  theologic  hate ;  what  but  the  seeth- 
ing hell  of  unrest  and  eternal  disillusionment? 
Oh  my  brothers ! '  I  cried  •  come  away  form  it  all 
to  Jesus  Christ.  He  longs  to  save  you  from  it 
still.'  I  had  forgotten  that  I  was  on  trial;  my 
soul  went  forth  to  them.  I  waited,  and  even  hell 
grew  silent  about  us.  I  prayed  without  words, 
as  I  thought  of  the  aeons  still  hanging  upon 
their  choice.  I  had  known  such  moments  on 
earth  in  dealing  with  men  for  the  supreme  decision, 
but  here  I  had  the  intenser  interest  of  watching 


CHURCHMEN  TO  BE  SAVED      177 

the  innermost  waver  of  each  spirit  about  me,  as 
the  finger  touch  of  each  one's  choice  was  poised 
ready  to  tip  the  balance  for  the  right  or  for  the 
wrong. 

"  As  these  keen  minds  hesitated,  almost  per- 
suaded, the  vision  arose  before  me  of  a  whole 
presbytery  truly  converted  to  God,  and  trans- 
formed into  a  power  to  win  other  souls  to  Him. 
Counld  not  He  answer  prayer  for  these  dignified 
ecclesiastics  of  the  inferno  as  I  had  once  seen 
it  answered  in  the  lump  for  the  degraded  inmates 
of  a  terrestrial  house  of  correction  ?  Alas !  this 
was  not  to  be  as  yet.  I  became  cognizant  of  a 
movement  in  different  individuals  of  that  silent 
body. 

"  It  was  Nathaniel's  old  friend,  Rorer,  hastily 
putting  forward  some  proposition  to  those  who 
had  been  my  most  determined  prosecutors.  One 
of  them  claimed  the  ear  of  the  presbytery,  and  in 
dryest  manner  moved  that  the  examination  of  the 
accused  be  suspended  at  this  point  and  that  the 
presbytery  be  by  itself.  Mr.  McCracken  in- 
formed me  that  I  could  withdraw  in  his  company, 
and  I  therefore  yielded  myself  to  his  guardian- 
ship. While  we  were  without,  I  was  conscious 
that  the  greater  part  of  my  companion  was 
absent  in  the  secret  session ;  but  I  refrained  my- 
self from  endeavoring  to  penetrate  its  reserve. 

"  I  thought  of  Jesus,  my  Master,  yielding  Him- 
self to  the  flimsy  bonds  and  puny  guarding  of 
Roman  soldiers  when  He  stood  before  Pilate  and 


178  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

before  Herod  voluntarily  emptying  Himself  of 
omnipotence.  I  resisted  the  longing  to  be  out  of 
it  all  and  to  be  wholly  in  heaven  during  the 
moments  of  eternity  taken  up  by  this  infernal 
presbytery  in  deciding  my  case.  These  moments 
were  prolonged  until  it  became  evident  even  to 
painfulness  that  presbytery  was  having  difficulty 
in  knowing  its  own  mind.  The  part  of  McCrack- 
en  which  remained  with  me  experienced  apparent 
preoccupation  in  maintaining  coherent  conversa- 
tion. But  presently  an  expression  of  relief  came 
over  him  and  in  another  moment  all  of  him  was 
there  present,  assuring  me  that  presbytery  wished 
me  to  return  and  receive  its  unanimous  decision. 

"  When  I  returned  to  them,"  Father  said,  "  all 
the  members  of  the  presbytery  looked  precisely 
alike  as  it  were  for  the  thickness  of  one  inch  below 
the  surface  of  their  souls;  but  further  within 
they  were  each  of  a  diverse  color,  which  showed 
through  in  spots.  The  clerk  pronounced  upon 
me  their  sentence,  which  was  that  whereas  I  had 
maintained  the  doctrine  of  a  probation  for  lost 
souls  after  death,  a  doctrine  opposed  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Westminster  Standards,  witness 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  chapter  XXXII,  Section 
I,  taken  with  Larger  Catechism  Question  89  and 
answer:  and  whereas  I  had  used  language  and 
made  an  appeal  upon  the  floor  of  this  presbytery 
which  clearly  betrayed  my  belief  that  this  pres- 
bytery itself  is  sitting  in  hell,  and  in  need  of  im- 
mediate repentance ;  and  whereas  I  had  thus  shown 


THE  HERESY  OF  IT  179 

myself  to  be  entirely  out  of  harmony  with  the 
Presbyterian  system  in  general,  and  with  this 
presbytery  in  particular;  therefore  presbytery 
hereby  first  solemnly  abjured  and  commanded  me 
to  recant  and  renounce  the  two  aforesaid  unsound, 
heretical  and  subversive  beliefs,  and  to  refrain 
hereafter  from  teaching  or  promulgating  them  in 
any  manner  or  at  any  time;  otherwise,  should  I 
declare  myself  unwilling  thus  to  carry  out  my 
ordination  vows  to  study  the  peace,  unity,  and 
purity  of  the  church,  and  to  yield  to  my  brethren 
all  subjection  and  obedience  in  the  Lord;  then 
second  presbytery  must  find  itself  sorrowfully 
compelled  to  dissolve  the  pastoral  relation  exist- 
ing between  me  and  the  church  of  Jeroboam's 
Holl,  to  depose  me  from  the  ministerial  office,  and 
finally  to  abscind,  cut  off,  and  excommunicate  me 
from  its  membership,  and  from  membership  in  the 
whole  Presbyterian  assembly  of  the  Intermediate 
State. 

"  Hereupon  the  question  was  solemnly  put  to 
me  whether  I  was  willing  to  renounce  my  errors, 
and  to  refrain  from  setting  them  forth  in  future. 
To  this  I  replied  denying  the  first  charge,  while 
courteously  and  affectionately  admitting  the 
second.  Referring  in  particular  to  the  passages 
in  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  in  the  Larger 
Catechism  quoted  against  me,  I  replied  that  I 
could  heartily  and  unreservedly  accept  the  doc- 
trines set  forth  therein;  if  they  could  but  allow 
me  to  take  the  words  *  forever '  and  '  reserved ' 


180  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

contained  therein  in  the  strict  signification  of  the 
Greek  words  for  which  they  stood  in  the  King 
James  translation  of  the  New  Testament.  I  be- 
lieved that  those  dying  impenitent  were  '  held ' 
for  judgment  as  every  impenitent  soul  every- 
where is  held,  and  that  in  judgment  they  are 
sentenced  to  the  pains  of  hell  *  unto  the  aeons  ' ; 
a  sentence  itself  ever  subject  to  reprieve.  This 
possible  reprieve  I  had  been  compelled  to  believe 
in  by  my  actual  and  startling  eye-witnessing  of 
this  reprieve  being  granted,  even  within  a  short 
time  past,  to  one  and  another  so  held  under  hell's 
chains  and  darkness.  Also  this  reprieve  and  full 
and  tender  pardon,  I  assured  them  was  now  of- 
fered and  extended  to  them,  my  fellow  presbyters, 
who  were  in  some  respects,  however  regretfully  I 
must  say  it,  the  chief  of  sinners,  having  sinned 
against  the  clearest  light. 

"  At  this  point  Doctor  Raxton,  my  chief 
accuser,  interrupted  me,  and  sternly  declared  that 
I  was  continuipg  to  do  precisely  what  presbytery 
had  but  just  now  abjured  and  debarred  me  from 
doing ;  namely,  proclaiming  heresy  and  appealing 
in  a  way  derogatory  to  the  piety  and  Christian 
character  of  the  members  of  presbytery  itself. 
Therefore  he  called  at  once  for  the  formal  pro- 
nouncement of  presbytery's  alternative  sentence 
upon  me. 

"  At  this  there  were  murmurs  of  dissent  on 
every  side,  cries  of  '  No  !  No  !  Let  him  speak ! ' 
also  motions  to  reconsider  the  former  decision  of 


EXCOMMUNICATED  181 

presbytery,  which  were  declared  out  of  order,  con- 
tended over,  put  and  voted  down.  These  were 
accompanied  with  changes  of  color  in  a  number 
of  souls  which  showed  a  wavering  toward  the  ac- 
ceptance of  Christ's  mercy  in  its  reality.  Then 
in  the  midst  of  these  agitations  came  the  strident 
tones  of  the  moderator  pronouncing  upon  me  the 
triple  sentence  decreed.  While  this  was  going 
forward,  the  congregation  of  onlookers  upon  the 
proceedings  of  the  presbytery  had  been  swelling, 
until  it  seemed  as  though  an  appreciable  portion 
of  hell  itself  was  swarming  in  curiosity  about  us. 
Then,  even  as  the  last  words  of  condemnation  and 
exclusion  fell  upon  me,  I  was  made  aware  of  a 
sobbing  creature  clinging,  as  it  were,  to  my  feet. 
It  was  Spindler,  who  had  pressed  his  way  into  the 
presbytery,  and  now  clove  to  me,  beseeching  me 
not  to  leave  him  behind,  if  I  must  take  my  de- 
parture. '  Oh,  pray  for  me,'  he  cried ;  "  if  you 
think,  peradventure,  prayer  can  possibly  be  an- 
swered for  a  thing  like  me.'  I  inquired  of  him 
if  he  was  determined  to  be  entirely  true,  by  God's 
help,  to  the  pure  friendship  of  his  three  Christian 
wives  in  heaven. 

"  He  answered,  *  If  they  can  ever  bear  to  look 
at  me  again ;  I  will  not  ask  ever  to  look  at  any 
other  women.'  Then  I  prayed  for  him,  even 
while  Presbytery  and  hell  around  stood  agape; 
and  Albert  here  and  my  two  mission  converts 
joined  our  circle  of  prayer,  Spindler  also  himself 
praying  humbly,  even  as  I  had  often  heard  him 


182  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

pray  on  earth  —  yet  with  a  new  note  of  honest 
dealing  with  God  and  duty  —  and  then  and  there, 
while  we  thus  prayed,  we  were  lifted  and  floated 
out  and  away  from  that  assembly,  in  spite  of  its 
tendrils  of  interest  clinging  like  long  sea-weed 
about  us ;  until  we  found  ourselves,  we  five  alone, 
amid  the  stars ;  yet  not  alone,  for  the  embrace  of 
our  all  forgiving  God  encircled  us  and  drew  us 
unto  Himself." 


A  FUNCTIONARY  OF  DEATH  183 


CHAPTER  X 

While  Father  was  thus  making  progress  back- 
ward searching  for  Harry,  his  first-born,  among 
the  churches  of  Gehenna,  Jeanie  and  I  were  hav- 
ing an  exciting  time  in  our  enterprise  with  its 
civic  orders.  Wilkinson  said,  "  I  calculate  we 
might  as  well  begin  with  old  Mystery !  "  "  Why 
yes,"  Jeanie  concurred,  "  if  it  was  wheels  that 
poor  Harry  was  fond  of,  I  could  hardly  imagine 
where  he  could  find  more  of  them,  wheels  within 
wheels,  than  in  Free-Masonry,  for  all  I  have  ever 
seen  and  heard." 

"  Which  of  them  are  here  ?  "  I  asked  Wilkinson 
softly,  dreading  the  answer.  "  Perhaps  you 
could  guess,"  was  his  reply.  "  I  would  almost 
rather  not,"  I  said,  "  I  would  not  wrong  one  of 
my  old  neighbours  or  parishioners  of  Tippleton ; 
yet  I  have  missed  so  many  of  them  from  heaven." 

"  Just  begin  at  the  top  of  the  list  and  come 
down  "  Wilkinson  suggested. 

"  It  always  seems  to  us,"  Jeanie  said,  "  that 
your  grand  mogul  of  all  was  McGammon ;  the  one 
you  usually  spoke  of  in  your  weekly  letters  to  the 
Independent  as  '  the  genial  proprietor  of  the 
Wessex  House.'  He  sent  so  many  poor  fellows 
from  his  bar-room  to  this  place,  and  then  officiated 
as  pall-bearer  with  so  much  dignity  at  each  of 
their  funerals;  it  would  seem  a  pity  for  him  not 


184  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

to  have  come  here  to  render  them  further  service 
—  at  least  for  a  time." 

"  McGammon  might  be  of  great  help  to  us  in 
the  search  for  Harry,"  I  mused ;  "  he  seemed,  by 
his  own  account,  to  be  such  a  great  man  in  his  re- 
lations with  Free-Masonry  throughout  our  state 
of  New  Jersey.  Then  there  was  my  church  trus- 
tee and  member,  Willoughby,  one  of  McGammon's 
faithful  visitors  —  poor  fellow !  he  too  seemed  to 
have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  grand  lodges  and 
conclaves." 

"  Well  they  are  both  here  all  right,"  Wilkin- 
son affirmed. 

"  Then  there  was  Uncle  Linas  Godson,  *  pickled 
in  whisky,'  "  Jeanie  reflected,  "  and  old  Ezekiel 
Carter  and  the  hotel  keeper  who  played  poker 
with  him,  and  our  elder  Smiley,  and  Sigsbee  the 
undertaker,  who  had  such  grand,  open-handed 
ways  and  rarely  missed  coming  to  church,  and 
Wilkins  who  owned  so  much  of  the  town,  includ- 
ing both  the  churches  (as  he  good-naturedly 
thought)  and  Mayor  Blake  and  those  well-to-do 
ex-hotel  keepers,  and  Dr.  Madding,  and  the  Hon- 
orable Mr.  Wilson,  the  merchants,  the  town  ser- 
geant, the  station  master,  the  barber,  the  wheel- 
right,  the  miller,  the  quarry  bosses,  and  — 
and  — " 

"  And  the  Methodist  minister,"  I  suggested. 

"  Dominie  Weems  never  came  this  way  "  Wil- 
kinson protested  hastily ;  "  for  all  that  a  lot  of  the 
rest  of  them  did." 


A  MASONIC  VILLAGE  185 

"  No  nor  my  friend  Howe,  the  hardware  man ; 
nor  farmer  Spelman,  nor  John  P.  and  several 
others  of  the  agriculturists  who  were  in  the 
lodge,"  I  admitted.  "  All  these  I  have  met  safe  in 
heaven  —  one  or  two  of  them,  perhaps,  '  so  as  by 
fire.'  " 

"  I  wonder  how  any  of  them  escaped  such  a 
maelstrom,"  Jeanie  declared. 

"  Alas,  I  did  not  plead  with  these  men  as  I 
should "  I  confessed.  "  I  would  meet  them 
smilingly  often,  while  inwardly  I  groaned  and 
shuddered  over  the  awful  jeopardy  they  were  in." 

"  I  do  not  think  you  have  any  cause  to  re- 
proach yourself,"  Jeanie  protested  stoutly. 
"  If  any  modern  minister  ever  set  the  judgment 
plainly  before  people,  it  was  you." 

"  No  Dominie,  don't  you  grieve  about  that," 
Wilkinson  said.  "  The  warnings  you  did  give 
us,  and  the  way  you  talked  and  plead  with  us  we 
would  joke  about  in  the  lodge  room.  What 
could  you  do  with  us  man  by  man,  when  we  all 
held  each  other  just  so,  onto  the  wrong  way, 
under  oath  and  secrecy,  and  the  awful  dread  that 
the  other  men  would  laugh,  or  turn  against  you." 

"  It  is  kind  of  you  both  to  exonerate  me,"  I 
said.  "  For  all  that  I  know,  and  God  knows  that 
I  was  never  quite  faithful  with  these  men.  I 
stood  all  but  paralized  before  the  force  of  a 
community  life  liberal  to  the  churches,  patron- 
izing toward  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ;  yet 
organized  or  controlled,  with  individual  excep- 


186  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

tions,  in  serenest  contempt  for  the  law  of  right." 

"  Isn't  it  strange  that  none  of  these  people 
come  around?  "  Jeanie  remarked,  clinging  to  me 
somewhat  nervously.  "  Why,  in  heaven  if  we 
talked  this  long  about  people,  they  would  some 
of  them  certainly  appear." 

"  I  guess  I'll  have  to  tell  you,"  said  Wilkinson 
hesitatingly ;  "  you  must  try  not  to  feel  uncom- 
fortable about  it;  but  they  are  all  around  you 
now,  only  you  can't  see  them.  They've  been 
coming  ever  since  you  spoke  of  the  Noble  Grand 
Master  McGammon.  They've  heard  everything 
you  said.  The  lodge  is  sitting  in  the  third  de- 
gree, and  you  can't  get  at  them  without  the  pass- 
words." 

When  I  could  control  that  creepy  feeling,  I  said 
to  Wilkinson,  even  sternly,  "  I  wish  to  meet  these 
men;  get  them  to  go  into  open  session,  or  give 
me  the  password." 

Something  like  laughter  below  the  gamut 
grated  in  imperceptible  vibrations  on  the  air  of 
hell.  Wilkinson's  soul  turned  pale.  "  If  I  were 
you,  I  would  withdraw  and  take  my  wife  away," 
he  said. 

"Withdraw  from  what?"  I  asked.  "How 
can  we  withdraw  from  a  presence  which  we  can- 
not detect?  Which  way  could  we  go,  and  know 
certainly  that  our  steps  were  not  being  dogged?  " 

"  Go  back  to  heaven  as  quick  as  you  can," 
Winkinson  counselled ;  "  never  mind  about  me ; 
I'll  come  through  somehow." 


A  SOLEMN  WARNING  187 

Jeanie  laughed  outright.  "  This  is  so  deli- 
ciously  like  Tippleton,"  she  said.  "  Surely  some 
of  them  must  be  near  indeed." 

"  But  you  don't  realize  how  much  you  are  in 
our  power  here,"  Wilkinson  persisted.  "  Hardly 
so  much  so  as  in  Tippleton,"  I  protested ;  "  except 
for  the  true  souls  who  dared  to  stand  with  us 
there.     Tell  me  what  they  are  plotting." 

"  They're  only  considering,"  Wilkinson  ex- 
plained, "  and  if  they  should  go  on  and  vote  on 
your  case,  no  power  in  hell  could  save  you.  I'm 
taking  a  big  risk  only  to  tell  you  this  much." 

"  Philip  Wilkinson,"  I  cried,  "  put  your  whole 
trust  in  God !     Then  I  sang  lustily, 

"  The  soul  that  to  Jesus  has  fled  for  repose, 
I  will  not,  I  will  not  desert  to  its  foes. 
That    soul    though    all   hell    should    endeavor    to 
shake , 
I'll  never,  no  never,  no  never  forsake!" 

"  Now,"  I  said,  "  get  some  of  your  lodge  mem- 
bers outside  of  this  unholy  curtain  of  secrecy. 
I  wish  to  talk  to  them,  as  I  never  quite  braced 
up  to  talk  with  one  of  them  on  earth." 

"Hush!"  said  Wilkinson.  "They  are  just 
moving  to  send  Squire  Willoughby  out  to  talk 
with  you." 

"  Well,  Dominie,"  Willoughby  said,  when  I 
could  distinguish  him  (Jeanie  had  not  yet  quite 
regained  her  sight  for  hell's  own  people),  "  you 
are  here  at  last,  are  you?  " 


188  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Yes,  Mr.  Willoughby,"  I  replied  as  calmly 
as  possible,  "  I'm  after  you." 

"  And  I'm  after  you,  Dominie,"  he  rejoined  in 
a  somewhat  embarrassed  manner.  "  Do  you  re- 
member the  first  time  you  came  to  see  me  in  Tip- 
pleton  and  how  I  offered  to  fill  out  an  applica- 
tion for  you  to  join  the  Masons?  " 

"  Yes,  you  said  it  was  against  the  rules  of  Free 
Masonry  to  approach  any  outsider  in  this  man- 
ner, but  you  thought  my  case  exceptional.  I 
thanked  you  for  the  honor  you  did  me,  and  told 
you  I  feared  I  could  not  accept  it,  but  would  take 
it  into  consideration  for  two  weeks." 

"  Yes,  and  do  you  remember  what  you  said 
when  you  saw  me  again  about  it?  " 

"  Yes.  I  said  I  did  not  feel  sure  but  that  I 
might  be  mentally  incapacitated  for  being  a  Ma- 
son ;  and  that  was  where  I  lost  your  friendship, 
and  where  I  made  one  of  the  many  mistakes  of  my 
life,  in  a  worldly  point  of  view.  I  was  often 
sorry  that  I  did  not  express  myself  more  clearly, 
and  am  to  this  day.  I  often  wished  for  a  chance 
to  explain,  but  you  never  seemed  to  give  me  one. 
I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  Free  Masonry  were  above  reproach." 

"  Well,  what  did  you  mean  by  it,  anyhow  ?  " 

"  Why  have  you  never  asked  me  before  ?  " 

"  I  was  too  mad.  I  thought  you  were  making 
fun  of  me  and  casting  contempt  upon  the  order." 

"  So  after  being  angry  with  me  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  you  think  it  is  time  to  ask  for 


IN  NEED  OF  LIGHT  189 

an  explanation !  And  I  tried  so  hard  to  win  back 
your  friendship  after  that !  " 

"  Well,  what  did  you  mean  ?  I  want  to  know, 
and  the  lodge  wants  to  know,  for  they  have  sent 
me  out  to  give  you  one  more  chance." 

"  My  dear  Squire  Willoughby,"  I  explained, 
"  after  you  made  me  the  first  offer  I  went  home 
and  wrote  to  an  uncle,  a  Knight  Templar  of 
Churchville,  D.  C.     This  is  what  I  wrote : 

"  ■  Dear  Uncle  Adolphus  : 

"  '  For  the  second  time  in  my  life,  I  am  very 
kindly  approached  to  become  a  Mason.  I  wish 
to  have  your  straightforward,  categorical  answer 
to  one  question.  Can  a  man  be  a  practical  Free 
Mason,  and  in  conscience  and  the  right  of  private 
judgment  in  dealing  with  his  fellowmen,  be  en- 
tirely a  free  man?  I  ask  you  this  question  be- 
cause I  have  seen  some  things  in  life,  and  Ma- 
sonic friends  have  happened  to  tell  me  some  other 
things  which  lead  me  to  doubt  about  it.  I  am 
open  to  conviction,  but  needing  to  be  convinced. 
Please  advise  me  plainly,  as  one  who  wishes  to  be 
honest,  and  who  believes  uncompromisingly  every- 
where and  always  in  the  square  deal  between  man 
and  man,  what  I  am  to  do  about  joining.  With 
love  for  Aunt  Eliza  and  the  young  folks,  I  am,  as 
as  ever,  your  affectionate  nephew. '  " 

"  And  how  did  he  reply  ?  "  Willoughby  asked. 
"  He  wrote : 


190  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  '  My  Deab  Nathaniel: 

" '  I  am  interested  to  observe  that  you  are 
still  of  an  inquiring  mind.  When  you  were  but 
five  years  old,  you  possessed  the  ability  of  asking 
more  questions  in  five  minutes  than  a  man  could 
answer  in  an  hour.  My  advice  to  you  is  to  join 
the  Masons,  now  that  you  have  another  chance. 
Perhaps  you  may  retrieve  somewhat  the  appar- 
ent lack  of  inability  to  take  the  world  by  the  han- 
dle and  get  on,  which  has  so  painfully  manifested 
itself  in  your  course  in  life  hitherto.  Do  not 
stand  shivering  on  the  brink,  but  take  the  plunge. 
Free  Masonry  is  great  and  complex.  Life  also 
is  full  of  complexities.  The  principles  of  our 
great  order  will  be  gradually  unfolded  to  you  as 
you  advance  from  degree  to  degree.  Do  not  be 
continually  straining  at  gnats  for  fear  of  swal- 
lowing some  camel.  The  age  we  live  in  is  one 
of  action,  rather  than  of  sickly  reflection. 
We  take  things  as  they  are  handed  to  us,  and 
use  them  as  we  see  other  people  using  them  for 
all  we  can  get  out  of  them.  Life  is  too  short, 
its  opportunities  too  brief,  to  spend  half  our  time 
splitting  hairs  about  small  scruples.  There  are 
always  too  sides  to  every  question,  even  those  that 
we  call  moral  ones.  You  ask  for  my  advice; 
that  is  remarkable;  advice  is  something  you  have 
rather  scorned  hitherto;  but  since  you  desire  it 
this  time,  take  it,  and  cultivate  herafter  a  less 
serious  way  of  regarding  yourself  and  your 
ideals ;  get  into  the  current  of  the  world's  success- 


THE  WORLD'S  WAY  191 

ful  methods,  and  swim  with  it  for  all  you  are 
worth.  With  kindest  regards  for  yourself  and 
for  Jeanie,  I  am,  as  ever,  your  affectionate  uncle.' 

"This  was  his  letter,  so  the  next  time  I  saw  you 
I  told  you  that  I  did  not  feel  quite  sure  but  that  I 
might  be  mentally  incapacitated  for  joining  your 
order.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  the  authority 
of  Uncle  Adolphus  for  the  hesitation,  although  I 
still  had  my  doubts  whether  the  inside  conception 
which  Uncle  Adolphus  apparently  had  formed 
of  Free  Masonry  was,  after  all,  the  true  concep- 
tion. How  could  I  reconcile  such  a  fear  with  the 
character  of  all  the  noble-minded  Free  Masons 
I  had  known  and  learned  to  love  ?  " 

"  I  regret  you  still  have  these  prejudices," 
Willoughby  answered,  "  for  I  am  sent  by  Mys- 
tery Lodge  to  invite  you  to  join.  This  is  your 
second  and  last  chance." 

There  was  a  veiled  threat  in  his  tone  which 
caught  Jeanie's  attention.  "  Nat,  who  are  you 
talking  with?  "  she  asked;  "  and  what  does  he  say 
about  joining  something?  " 

"  It  is  Mr.  Willoughby,  who  was  one  of  our 
trustees  in  Tippleton,"  I  answered.  Then  I  tried 
to  produce  a  clearer  medium  of  sympathy  through 
which  she  might  discern  him.  "  You  remember," 
I  said,  "  how  you  went  with  me  once  or  twice  to 
call  on  him  in  his  great  interesting  old  house  and 
to  sing  for  him  by  the  piano  which  had  not  been 
used  since  his  daughter  died." 


198  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

She  saw  him  now.  "  Oh,  Mr.  Willoughby,  how 
you  have  changed ! "  she  cried  pityingly. 

Willoughby  had  been  one  of  those  aging  men 
whose  nose  and  chin  appear  to  approach  each 
other  with  the  passage  of  years.  The  process 
seemed  to  have  continued  with  the  physiognomy 
of  his  soul  throughout  the  more  than  one  hun- 
dred years  of  his  stay  in  hell.  A  shell  or  beak 
enclosed  him,  which  barely  opened  to  emit  a 
thought.  Now,  as  Jeanie  spoke  to  him,  his  re- 
serve relaxed  and  his  beak  expanded.  "  I  remem- 
ber the  first  time  you  came,"  he  said.  "  It  was 
when  I  had  the  spell  of  rheumatic  fever." 

"  And  you  told  us  so  much  about  your  wife  and 
daughter,"  Jeanie  said  eagerly.  "  And  my  hus- 
band prayed  with  you  and  asked  you  if  you  did 
not  long  to  meet  them  in  heaven." 

"  There  they  are  waiting  for  you  yet,  Mr.  Wil- 
loughby," I  cried,  seizing  her  cue. 

"  And  oh,  Mr.  Willoughby ! "  cried  Jeanie, 
"  wouldn't  you  rather  be  with  them  than  here 
with  all  these  ex-rum-sellers,  poker-players  and 
other  godless  lodge  members?  " 

Willoughby  trembled.  "  Have  you  really  been 
with  them  ?  "  he  asked. 

Jeanie  told  him  some  things  Mrs.  Willoughby 
and  the  daughter  had  mentioned  to  her  in  heaven 
about  happy  days  when  Mr.  Willoughby  joined 
the  church  and  went  with  them  so  faithfully,  until 
McGammon  came  and  bought  the  Wessex  House 
and  took  a  pew  in  church,  got  hold  of  him  at  the 


A  SPURIOUS  FREEMASONRY      193 

lodge,  and  drew  him  back  to  the  old  life.  "  They 
are  praying  for  you  yet,"  Jeanie  said.  "  You 
look  so  old,  and  tired,  and  lonely !  Won't  you 
come  away  to  them  with  us  ?  " 

Willoughby's  whole  aspect  softened.  "  If  ever 
a  man  loved  his  wife,"  he  began,  and  then  his 
manner  grew  troubled.  "  They  are  calling  me 
back  into  the  lodge,"  he  said ;  "  we  will  talk  about 
this  another  time." 

"  Don't  you  go,  Squire,"  Wilkinson  urged. 
"  Let's  all  four  cut  out  of  here  forever." 

"  You  see,  Squire,"  I  added,  "  this  thing  you 
belong  to  is  not  really  Free  Masonry  any  longer. 
When  I  was  a  boy,  Masons  did  not  permit  liquor 
sellers  to  join  their  order.  It  is  just  as  I  tried 
to  tell  you  once  in  Tippleton ;  if  you  let  this  busi- 
ness into  a  lodge,  by  hook  or  by  crook  it  will 
control  the  lodge  and  use  the  lodge  for  its  own 
ends.  It  is  the  same  way  with  a  church.  It  is 
suicidal  for  any  church  to  rent  a  pew  to  a  rum- 
seller.  Have  I  not  read  in  the  county  papers  of 
banquets  held  by  your  lodges  at  hotels,  with  an 
itemized  description  of  the  wines  served,  and  the 
names  published  of  my  brother  ministers  who 
were  Free  Masons,  and  who  were  there  to  say 
grace,  or  otherwise  sanctify  the  occasion  by  their 
prominent  part  in  it?  No  doubt  they  thought 
they  were  winning  men,  but  they  were  really  un- 
derestimating the  intelligence  of  Satan.  The 
devil  is  no  true  Mason  and  there's  nothing  free 
about  your  Masonry  with  him  in  the  lodge.     If 


194  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

you  want  to  find  real  freedom  and  fraternity,  cry 
to  God  for  enfranchisement  from  sin,  and  come 
away  to  the  brotherhood  of  the  saints  in  glory." 

"  Let  me  go  and  see  what  they  want,"  Wil- 
loughby  urged ;  "  maybe  I  can  get  them  all  to 
come  and  listen  to  what  you  have  to  say." 

"  That  would  be  fine,"  I  admitted,  "  but  I  have 
my  misgivings.  I  would  rather  hold  you.  A 
bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bush." 

"  Oh,  don't  go  back  in  there,"  Jeanie  pleaded. 
"  They  will  just  keep  you  from  ever  coming  out 
again." 

"  Better  cut  the  whole  hell  crowd,  I  say,"  Wil- 
kinson put  in,  manfully. 

"  What's  the  Dominie  doing  in  hell,  then,  I'd 
like  to  know  ? "  was  Willoughby's  answer  — 
"  with  his  wife,  too." 

"  I'm  here  on  the  same  errand  as  when  I  came 
to  the  barroom  of  the  Wessex  House  those  Satur- 
day nights  with  my  Bible  in  hand  to  read  and 
pray,"  I  answered. 

"  Entirely  out  of  place,  it  was,"  Willoughby 
said.  "  I  never  came  to  hear  you  preach  after 
that." 

"  That  was  because  you  were  mad  to  think  the 
Dominie  found  you  there,"  Wilkinson  explained. 
"  Your  conscience  began  to  work.  I  know,  be- 
cause I  felt  the  same  way." 

"  But  when  he  got  through  praying  for  us  and 
went  out,"  Willoughby  said,  "  why,  we  all  had  to 
take  a  drink  to  steady  our  nerves,  and  we  said, 


MISPLACED  ZEAL  195 

6  Why  don't  he  keep  his  religion  out  of  here? '  " 
"  I  felt  strange  enough,"  I  admitted.  "  I 
knew  there  were  hardly  three  men  in  the  town  who 
would  approve;  but  I  just  couldn't  stand  it  any 
longer.  And  that's  why  I  am  here.  Such  reli- 
gion as  I  have,  I  cannot  keep  it  out  of  hell.  I 
did  not  go  into  the  barrooms  to  spy  on  you;  I 
would  much  rather  not  have  seen  who  was  there. 
I  wanted  to  pray  for  your  perishing  souls.  I 
couldn't  stay  away,  and  get  you  out  of  my  mind. 
Neither  can  I  now.  Oh,  Willoughy !  I  want  to 
see  you  a  truly  saved  man.  You  are  not  wrong- 
headed,  but  you  are  weak.  I  dread  to  have  you 
go  back  among  your  fellow  lodge  members,  until 
I  have  seen  you  call  on  God  for  mercy  and  help." 
"  Suppose  you  let  me  go  in  with  him,"  Wilkin- 
son suggested.  "  I  will  see  what  I  can  do  with 
the  others,  and  anyhow,  I'll  stay  by  him  and  bring 
him  out  safe,  if  it  can  be  done." 

We  had  our  anxieties  for  Wilkinson  also, 
Jeanie  and  I;  but  we  could  not  hold  them  back, 
and  we  longed  to  get  at  the  others;  so  we  let 
them  go  in,  promising  to  pray  for  them  every 
moment.  There  was  a  blare  of  sound,  as  if  a 
thick  door  had  opened  where  oaths  and  laughter 
mingled,  and  then  silence,  and  we  were  alone  in 
hell. 


196  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 


CHAPTER  XI 

Whether  it  was  a  half  hour  or  a  week  we 
waited,  it  was  hard  to  tell.  No  one  molested  us, 
but  the  suspense  grew  worse  than  struggle. 

"  Do  you  think  they  have  put  Mr.  Wilkinson 
in  their  dungeon  ?  "  Jeanie  asked,  recalling  stories 
of  earthly  lodge  rooms. 

"  God  keep  him  from  the  worser  fate !  "  I  cried 
in  deep  concern. 

"  Any  way,  it's  nice  and  quiet  for  once  in 
hell,"  Jeanie  murmured.  "  We  can  pray  for  Mr. 
Wilkinson,  and  isn't  it  just  lovely  that  we  can  be 
together  in  this  vast  silence?  Aren't  you  glad 
now  that  I  came,  dear  Boy?  " 

"  Glad  for  myself,  but  anxious  for  you,  dear," 
I  replied,  drawing  her  close.  Indeed,  I  did  not 
like  to  tell  her  how  bodeful  the  solitude  seemed. 
It  gave  rather  a  sinister  demonstration  of  the 
force  which  could  be  exerted  in  hell  by  the  august 
organization  with  which  we  were  presuming  to 
deal. 

"  Never  mind,  dear  Boy,"  Jeanie  said  reassur- 
ingly ;  "  we  are  safe  and  happy,  with  God  and 
each  other." 

"  But  we  are  not  making  headway  with  God's 
task,"  I  objected. 

"  I  believe  we  ought  to  pray  for  God  to  save 
Mr.  McGammon,"  Jeanie  proposed.     "  It  looks 


OMINOUS  SOLITUDE  197 

as  if  he  still  has  the  whole  bunch  on  a  string. 
Perhaps  we  can  pull  him  out,  if  we  pray  earnestly 
enough." 

So  we  set  to  work.  It  may  have  been  a  fort- 
night or  three  weeks  that  we  prayed,  by  turns  or 
in  concert.  We  told  God  all  the  kind  things  we 
could  think  of  about  the  subject  of  our  petitions; 
how  faithful  he  used  to  be  in  coming  to  church 
after  the  strain  of  the  terrible  Saturday  nights  in 
his  barroom,  and  in  spite  of  the  hard  things  the 
preacher  was  sometimes  betrayed  into  saying  — 
all  through  the  first  happy  year  of  our  pastorate 
at  Tippleton  and  up  to  the  time  the  pews  were 
voted  free ;  how  kind  his  wife  was  to  send  us 
chickens  all  dressed;  how  often  he  would  urge  us 
to  use  his  carriage;  how  we  would  hear  of  their 
charitable  activities  in  collecting  old  clothing  for 
the  poor  children  of  Frank  Johnson  and  others 
of  their  all-too-steady  customers,  and  also  of 
their  prominent  helpfulness  on  funeral  occasions. 
We  pleaded  for  what  McGammon  might  be,  un- 
der grace,  as  a  leader  of  men,  and  for  what  he 
could  possibly  do  with  the  so-called  Free  Masons 
of  perdition.  We  rolled  upon  God's  thought  the 
awful  havoc  of  leaving  such  a  man  longer  exer- 
cising his  lieutenancy  for  Satan.  We  appealed 
for  a  miracle  of  redeeming  power  to  be  exercised 
upon  one  whose  conversion  would  make  saints  and 
angels  stand  agape.  We  besought  for  mercy  for 
the  chief,  because  the  most  unacknowledging,  of 


198  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

sinners,  and  prayed  that  prevenient  grace  might 
soften  his  proud,  hard  heart,  and  bring  even  him 
to  repentance. 

We  were  too  busy  to  notice  any  time-makers  of 
the  stellar  universe.  I  suppose  it  might  have 
been  about  the  middle  of  the  second  week  that  we 
felt  something  begin  to  pull.  We  redoubled  our 
entreaties  at  the  throne  of  grace.  It  was  slow 
work,  like  twisting  a  hedgehog  out  of  his  hole 
with  a  forked  stick.  But  we  found  ourselves 
really  growing  to  love  the  man's  soul,  as  we 
prayed  for  him,  and  that  gave  us  conscious  in- 
crease of  power  to  pull.  It  was  evident  that  there 
was  a  struggle  at  the  other  end.  More  and  more 
tense  grew  our  longing  for  this  man's  salvation. 
We  prayed  in  gasps  for  sustaining  power  to  pray, 
clinging  to  each  other  lest  we  should  be  fairly 
torn  asunder,  clinging  to  God  and  to  God's  prom- 
ise of  salvation  unto  the  uttermost.  At  length, 
when  we  were  all  but  bowed  to  the  floor  of  hell, 
there  was  suddenly  an  explosion.  The  scroll  of 
inviolate  secrecy  cracked  asunder,  and  McGam- 
mon  himself  stood  before  us.  We  had  never  in 
our  mortal  acquaintance  seen  him  in  any  way 
visibly  perturbed,  not  even  when  I  preached  En- 
sign Dexter's  funeral,  after  his  last  spree,  from 
"  It  remaineth  to  man  once  to  die,  and  after  that 
the  judgment"  (Hebrews  ix.  27),  and  endeav- 
ored to  disclose  before  his  pall  bearers  and  others 
assembled  there  the  dispassionate  inquest  God 
must  hold  over  each  man's  life  and  death,  to  lo- 


THE  IRRESISTIBLE  PULL         199 

cate  the  blame  for  it  all,  and  to  determine  if  he 
were  more  sinned  against  or  sinning.  But  now 
our  old  acquaintance  came  to  us  purple  all  over 
below  the  gray.  I  found  myself  embarrassed  and 
disturbed  in  his  sudden  presence,  to  the  point  of 
hardly  knowing  how  to  address  him.  But  Jeanie 
broke  the  pause  quite  naturally,  exclaiming, 
"Why,  Mr.  McGammon !  you  are  just  the  man 
we  wish  to  see.  It  was  very  kind  of  you  to  come." 
So  his  composure  was  reestablished,  and  he  asked 
us  with  much  of  his  old-time  dignity  what  he 
could  do  for  us  now. 

"  We  wish  you  first  to  surrender  your  whole 
soul  to  God,"  I  answered  stoutly. 

McGammon  did  not  answer  at  onoe.  It  was 
his  way  to  give  you  a  moment  of  silence  in  which 
to  wonder  if  you  had  really  addressed  him  as  his 
worth  demanded.  "  Reverend  Sir,"  he  answered 
at  length,  "  what  would  you  have  me  do  second?  " 

"  Whatever  you  felt  most  like  doing,"  I  an- 
swered. "  When  you  have  once  given  yourself 
to  God,  you  will  wish  to  do  the  right  thing,  and 
nothing  else." 

"  When  did  I  ever  do  anything  else  but  the 
right  thing?  "  he  demanded. 

There  was  no  use  in  mincing  words  with  him, 
so  I  answered :  "  It  is  the  motive  that  makes  an 
action  right  or  wrong.  The  whole  motive  of 
your  life  during  the  short  time  I  knew  you  seemed 
opposed  to  God." 

"  And  you  can  never  be  happy  in  that  way," 


200  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Jeanie  assured  him.  "  I  never  pitied  any  one  in 
Tippleton  so  much  as  I  pitied  you.  Won't  you 
give  it  all  up  now?  " 

"  Madam  and  Reverend  Sir,"  McGammon  an- 
swered hastily,  "  I  must  ask  you  to  excuse  me 
from  further  conversation;  I  am  called  for  else- 
where." 

While  I  hesitated,  Jeanie  said,  "  If  you  leave 
us,  we  will  go  to  praying  for  you  again." 

McGammon  turned  more  grey,  and  remained. 

"  We  are  concerned  for  your  soul,  McGam- 
mon," I  said ;  "  we  never  prayed  for  you  before 
as  we  have  been  praying  this  time.  I  feel  that  I 
sinned  against  you  in  Tippleton  in  despairing  of 
your  salvation.  I  did  not  try  hard  enough  to  get 
into  your  world  and  to  intersphere  with  you,  and 
understand,  and  sympathize.  I  am  sorry,  and  I 
do  so  wish  to  make  up  for  that  now.  Probably  in 
your  situation  I  would  have  been  drawn  into  your 
line  of  business.  Then  certainly  I  would  have  en- 
deavored to  intrench  and  reinforce  myself  just  as 
you  did,  only  without  your  consummate  address 
in  doing  so.  I  am  so  sorry  that  I  did  not  do  bet- 
ter by  you.  I  am  only  more  glad  that  I  can 
tell  that  I  have  this  opportunity  to  speak  to 
you  again.  Heaven  would  be  one  long  regret, 
if  I  could  not  get  to  make  up  in  this  way  for  my 
failures  on  earth.  Now  won't  you  listen  to  us 
while  we  try  to  make  it  plain  to  you  that  there 
is  still  a  plan  of  salvation  which  embraces  you? 
You  have  not  now,  as  you  doubtless  once  thought, 


AN  UNLIKELY  ENDEAVOR        201 

your  bread  to  make  in  the  service  of  Satan. 
What  should  hold  you  from  breaking  away  from 
his  hard  thralldom  altogether,  and  becoming  a 
free  man  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  " 

"  What  but  the  same  wicked  grasp  for  power 
over  others ! "  Jeanie  exclaimed  aside  to  me. 

"  Reverend  Prester,"  McGammon  answered 
with  apparent  frankness,  "  I  appreciate  your  in- 
terest. You  are  faithful  in  your  endeavors  to 
exercise  the  duties  of  your  office.  I  always  said 
you  were.  I  was  never  so  much  opposed  to  you, 
as  you  were  to  me.  I  wish  to  say  again,  as  I 
have  said  before,  that  I  have  a  very  great  respect 
for  sincere  religion.  I  am  not  so  far  from  a 
Christian  life  as  you  may  think.  No  man  can  be 
a  consistent  Mason  without  the  cultivation  of  vir- 
tue. Your  manner  of  address,  Reverend  Sir,  is, 
from  your  standpoint,  such  as  I  should  expect.  I 
should  think  strange  of  you  if  you  did  not,  upon 
suitable  occasions,  broach  the  subject  of  religion 
in  your  conversation  with  those  with  whom  you 
are  thrown.  And  now,  will  you  not  inform  me 
how  I  can  serve  you ;  for  there  is  a  more  urgent 
demand  for  my  presence  elsewhere?  " 

"  What  have  you  done  with  Mr.  Wilkinson  ?  " 
demanded  Jeanie,  "  and  Mr.  Willoughby  ?  " 

"Done?"  exclaimed  McGammon.  "I  have 
not  done  anything  with  these  gentlemen.  They 
are  both  where  they  wish  to  be." 

"  That  seems  strange,"  Jeanie  said.  "  They 
both  promised  to  come  back  to  us." 


202  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  They  must  have  forgotten,"  said  McGam- 
mon.  "  I  regret,  Madam,  that  your  sex  prevents 
me  from  showing  them  to  you  as  I  see  them  at 
this  moment  enjoying  the  sacred  seclusion  of  their 
conclave,  happy  in  the  uninterrupted  conversation 
of  their  fellows." 

"  How  can  that  be  ?  "  I  wondered.  "  How  can 
any  one  enjoy  or  be  happy  in  hell?  " 

"  I  am  sure  I  have  often  thought  it  about  Mr. 
Wilkinson  and  Elder  Smiley  and  some  other  men," 
Jeanie  declared,  "  that  they  could  be  happy  al- 
most anywhere  where  there  was  unlimited  oppor- 
tunity for  talking." 

"  But  Wilkinson ;  "  I  exclaimed.  "  He  has  so 
lately  experienced  conversion !  " 

"  Allow  me  to  detain  you  a  few  moments," 
McGammon  said.  "  I  think  I  may  be  able  to  give 
you  a  glimpse." 

He  seemed  to  be  making  some  signal  or  other. 
Presently  it  was  as  if  a  curtain  slipped  aside; 
and  there  all  around  us  a  great  lodge  came  into 
view,  seemingly  having  an  intermission  in  its  rit- 
ual. I  would  not  like  to  say  how  many  were  rec- 
ognized among  the  throng.  But  there,  alas ! 
truly  enough,  was  Wilkinson,  the  center  of  an 
appreciative  group,  discoursing  with  more  than 
his  old-time  expansiveness  on  some  subject  of 
which  we  could  not  catch  a  syllable.  Indeed,  the 
whole  scene  was  in  pantomime,  so  that  no  precious 
secret  was  imparted  to  us.  A  moment  more  and 
the  vision  faded.     Then  Jeanie  and  I  looked  upon 


A  GENEROUS  OFFER  203 

one  another,  she  with  the  expression  a  woman  has 
when  she  is  about  to  say,  "  I  told  jou  so ! "  only 
for  sorrow  we  both  exclaimed  simultaneously, 
"  Backslidden ! " 

"Does  this  satisfy  you,  respected  friends?" 
McGammon  asked.  "  Or  is  there  any  other  ac- 
quaintance about  whom  you  would  desire  to  ac- 
quire information?  " 

I  was  somewhat  crestfallen,  I  fear,  in  answer- 
ing. I  explained  that  our  primary  object  was  the 
search  for  my  brother;  as  to  whose  moral  where- 
abouts we  had  no  clue,  any  more  than  we  had  had 
through  his  whole  earthly  life ;  but  that  Wilkin- 
son had  kindly  engaged  to  pilot  us  here  and  there 
among  the  civic  orders  of  this  outer  world,  to  aid 
us  in  making  inquiries  for  him.  While  searching 
for  him,  I  explained  that  I  trusted  at  least  to 
find  some  other  brothers  of  men,  and,  by  God's 
grace,  to  take  them  with  me  back  to  heaven. 

McGammon  seemed  concerned  in  thought  for 
us  for  some  moments,  and  then  he  made  a  pro- 
posal which  did  not  appeal  to  us  both  alike. 
"  Your  sex,  Mrs.  Prester,"  he  said,  "  will  pre- 
clude you  from  such  intimate  acquaintance  with 
Free  Masons  and  Free  Masonry,  as  I  can  by  the 
extreme  courtesy,  accord  your  husband.  Could 
you  not  possibly  find  congenial  female  friends 
among  whom  you  could  await  his  return,  with  no 
possible  danger  of  experiences  trying  to  feminine 
delicacy  ?  —  with  no  reflection,  sir,  intended  upon 
any   one.     If  you   could   accompany   me   alone, 


204  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Reverend  Sir,  I  can  put  the  whole  range  of  my 
acquaintance  with  Free  Masonry  and  members  of 
lesser  orders  at  your  service  in  the  search  for 
your  brother." 

I  felt  grateful  for  such  an  offer  from  one  whom 
I  had  opposed  in  former  days.  It  even  seemed 
to  show  traces  of  an  incipient  Christian  spirit  of 
forgiveness,  and  reassured  my  new  ideal  of  con- 
verting a  most  influential  reprobate.  So  I  was 
disposed  to  accept  the  offer,  especially  as  it  gave 
me  a  pretext  for  getting  Jeanie  safe  and  pleas- 
antly back  into  heaven.  But  to  her  mind  the 
proposition  bore  a  sinister  aspect.  "  This  man 
always  could  set  any  kind  of  a  trap,"  she  said, 
"  and  you  could  be  safely  counted  on  to  walk 
right  into  it." 

"  Sometimes  that  is  the  directest  way  to  smash 
them,"  I  answered.  "  But  this  time  he  offers  the 
only  way  I  can  see  to  get  at  Wilkinson  and  Wil- 
loughby  and,  possibly,  Harry  Prester." 

"  And  what  will  become  of  poor  me,  all  the  time 
you  are  gone?  "  she  asked  wistfully. 

"  Darling,"  I  answered,  "  it  is  not  my  will  to 
be  separated  from  you.  It  has  so  often  been  like 
this  when  I  have  had  to  go  anywhere  without 
you !  I  am  sure  you  would  not  wish  to  make  me 
ridiculous  before  all  these  men  inside." 

"  Oh,  my  dear  Boy,"  she  said  piteously.  "  I 
have  a  woman's  nature ;  I  cannot  help  but  tremble 
for  you.     There  is  just  one  of  you,  and  they  are 


IT  MAY  BE  FOR  EVER  205 

so  many !  This  experience  with  Wilkinson  shows 
how  much  you  can  depend  on  any  of  them." 

"  Hell  is  God's  world,  too,  my  darling,"  I  mur- 
mured. 

"  But  I  need  you  so,  dear  Boy,  and  I  was  so 
proud  to  think  I  could  go  with  you !  " 

"  And  I  need  you,  my  darling,"  I  answered. 
"  My  heart  grows  heavy  almost  as  though  I  were 
starting  off  on  a  candidating  trip,  to  think  of 
going  without  you.  But  then,  your  more  than 
three  hundred  descendants  in  heaven  all  need  you. 
Won't  you  go  straight  to  them,  dear,  and  wait 
for  me  there?  I  will  come  to  you  there,  as  soon 
as  I  get  through  with  these  lodges.  That  will 
be  the  very  next  thing.  Pray  that  I  may  bring 
many  with  me." 

"  Oh,  dear  Boy,  I  cannot,"  said  Jeanie.  "  Go 
on  inside  if  you  must,  and  let  me  wait  for  you 
here." 

"  You  will  have  to  leave  me  first,  my  darling," 
I  answered.  "  I  cannot  leave  you  —  alone  in 
hell!" 

While  we  were  conversing  with  one  another, 
McGammon  was  showing  signs  of  growing  impa- 
tience, and  swelling  to  monstrous  size  with  of- 
fended importance.  At  last  Jeanie  gave  me  a 
trembling  caress,  and  glowed  away  from  hell. 
Her  position  did  not  change  by  the  bearings  of 
the  stars.  Her  form  just  lost  its  outline  in  a 
blurr  of  light  so  glorious  as  to  be  painful  to  our 


206  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

gaze  from  the  murky  atmosphere.  To  the  last 
of  my  power  to  look,  her  soul  glowed  toward 
mine  with  ineffable  love,  and  her  last  thought-mes- 
sage was  a  prayer  that  God  would  keep  me  and 
bless  me.  I  turned  to  McGammon  —  the  man  I 
had  never  seen  moved  on  earth  —  hoping  to  find 
him  trembling,  too,  with  sacred  feeling.  He  had 
shrunk  by  one-half;  yet  he  could  speak  without 
apparent  emotion,  and  asked  me  if  I  were  ready 
to  enter  an  arcanum  which  had  no  gates  opening 
outward. 

"  I  am  ready,"  I  answered,  "  to  go  where  God 
wills." 


IN  DURANCE  VILE  207 


CHAPTER  XII 

Naturally,  my  first  desire  was  to  talk  with  Wil- 
kinson. At  close  range  within  the  conclave,  the 
mystery  of  his  apostacy  was  solved  in  part.  I 
found  there  were  really  two  of  him  now:  an  out- 
side Wilkinson,  talkative  almost  to  f everishness ; 
and  there  inside  a  sorrowful,  dumb,  abjectly 
heartbroken  creature,  trying  to  hide  away  en- 
tirely within  its  companion.  My  conversation 
was  partly  with  one,  partly  with  the  other.  The 
first  recognized  me  casually  with  a  modulated 
surprise. 

"  Dominie  Prester  of  all  men ! "  he  exclaimed. 
"  At  last  have  you  become  a  Mason !  " 

"  I  always  longed  to  be  one,"  I  answered,  "  if 
only  that  by  all  means  I  could  save  some  of  you 
men." 

The  outer  Wilkinson  took  a  careful  observation 
of  the  immediate  neighborhood,  to  ascertain  that 
no  one  of  the  great  lodge  was  interested  in  the 
conversation;  then  the  inner  Wilkinson  peeped 
through,  and  asked  plaintively : 

"  Did  you  really  venture  all  this  just  to  follow 
me  up  ?  " 

"  It  was  either  follow  you  up,  or  give  you  up," 
I  answered,  "  and  I  could  not  bear  to  do  that." 

"  Dominie,  you  don't  know  what  this  means," 
both  Wilkinsons  exclaimed  at  once.  "  You  can 
never  get  out  of  this  again ! " 


208  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

A  sinister  shadow  flitted  over  my  spirit  at  his 
words,  like  that  cast  by  some  passing  bird  of 
prey.  Then  I  took  the  sudden  suggestion  more 
rationally,  and  answered  that  I  could  not  believe 
anything  so  strange.  "  I  took  no  obligation  in 
entering  your  order,"  I  said.  "  It  was  McGam- 
mon's  proposal,  and  he  made  no  condition.  I  am 
only  here  as  a  visitor  looking  for  my  brother  — 
and  all  my  other  brothers.  When  I  have  fulfilled 
God's  mission  here,  God  will  recall  me,  and  what 
can  separate  us  from  His  love?  " 

"  You  do  not  know  the  power  with  which  you 
are  dealing,"  the  inner  Wilkinson  answered  fur- 
tively. "  Here  I  am  caught,  chained,  helpless.  I 
can  never  see  heaven  or  mother  now.  And  I  saw 
our  Worshipful  Grand  cast  the  same  spell  over 
you  as  you  entered.  Oh,  I  tried  to  warn  you! 
You  are  only  in  the  first  degree :  you  can  see  only 
the  least  part  of  what  is  done  and  plotted  around 
you;  but  can't  you  feel  it?  Don't  something 
tell  you  you  are  in  a  trap?  " 

"  I  have  had  sensations,  I  suppose,  something 
like  those  of  a  deep  sea  diver,  ever  since  I  came 
into  hell,"  I  answered.  "  Now  I  simply  feel  that 
I  have  gone  a  little  deeper.  I  have  no  right  to 
call  it  a  trap  when  McGammon  warned  me  that 
there  were  no  doors  opening  outward." 

"  Then  you  really  agreed  to  let  him  shut  you 
in,"  Wilkinson  exclaimed,  "  and  you  have  already 
seen  things  in  our  Free  Masonry  of  hell  that  no 
spirit  could  ever  be  allowed  to  get  out  and  tell." 


ALWAYS  AJAR  209 

"  That  is  his  lookout,"  I  replied ;  "  he  cannot 
shut  me  in,  whatever  he  thinks;  for  I  have  with 
me  the  key  which  let  Christian  and  Hopeful  out 
of  Doubting  Castle." 

"  There  isn't  any  lock  to  put  your  key  in," 
Wilkinson  contended.  "  McGammon  told  you 
right:  there  aren't  any  doors." 

"  Christ  is  the  Door,"  I  answered,  "  both  in- 
ward and  outward.     He  is  beside  me." 

"  Oh,  Dominie !  "  the  real  Wilkinson  wailed,  "  I 
thought  it  would  be  so  before  I  came  in  this  time ; 
but  I  can't  find  him.     Christ  never  came  in  here." 

"  But  we  have  His  promise,  Philip,"  I  urged. 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  Jcosmos  and  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  every  created  being,"  "  and  lo !  I  am  with 
you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  consummation  of 
the  age." 

"  Yes,  Dominie,  but  not  in  a  place  like  this. 
I  can't  feel  Him  in  here.  Try  it  yourself,  Domi- 
nie. Can  you  even  feel  interested  in  anything 
outside  of  here  now  ?  " 

Thus  challenged  to  objectify  my  own  emotions, 
I  realized  with  a  sudden  misgiving  that  heaven 
and  the  outer  hell  itself  had  grown  strangely  far 
away.  My  mental  images  even  of  Jeanie  and  of 
Joy,  of  my  mother  and  my  children,  of  Father 
and  Albert  exploring  hell's  ecclesiastical  world 
were  all  blurred  and  indistinct.  Many  years 
seemed  to  have  elapsed  since  telling  Jeanie  good- 
bye. Not  only  was  the  intense  longing  dominant 
to  talk  with  the  former  acquaintances  whom  I  be- 


210  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

gan  to  recognize  at  every  glance  about  the  blue, 
mysterious  interior  around  me ;  but  a  creeping  fas- 
cination possessed  me  to  interpret  the  solemn  and 
varied  formalities  which  were  transpiring  in  end- 
less weary  iteration.  It  was  almost  as  though  I 
had  died  a  second  time  —  a  death  that  entailed 
contraction,  as  the  former  had  brought  expansion 
of  life.  The  air  seemed  close  and  dead.  The 
stars  had  grown  dim,  as  if  seen  through  imper- 
fectly transparent  walls,  themselves  invisible,  be- 
cause never  stationary.  The  consciousness  that 
there  were  walls,  seamless,  flexible,  yet  mercilessly 
inclusive,  haunted  me  as  a  dreamy  suspicion 
rather  than  as  a  demonstrable  fact.  A  nameless, 
numb  depression  held  me,  and  every  effort  seemed 
slower  than  a  nightmare;  but  when  I  asked  God 
still  to  make  the  waking  glad,  there  came  a  thrill 
of  joy,  warming  the  center  of  my  being  with  the 
exultation  of  an  arctic  campfire.  I  turned  to  my 
companion  and  said,  "  Brother,  I  can  still  love 
God." 

"  I  still  want  to  love  Him,  too,"  Wilkinson  said. 
"  I  didn't  go  to  turn  my  back  on  Him.  Only,  be- 
fore I  knew  it,  I  was  talking  with  the  boys  and 
they  didn't  any  of  them  seem  to  see  any  change  in 
me,  and  I  was  glad  they  didn't,  and  then  when  I 
thought  about  God,  He  wasn't  there." 

"  God  will  come  back  to  you  when  you  are 
ready  to  confess  Him,"  I  said.  "  Oh,  brother, 
let  us  brace  up  and  show  a  bold  front,  we  two,  for 
our  Master." 


DEVIL  WORSHIP  IN  EARNEST      211 

But  as  I  spoke,  the  inner  Wilkinson  suddenly 
shrank  from  view,  while  the  outer  one  blandly 
remarked  in  full  tone,  "  You  haven't  noticed  the 
signal,  Dominie  Prester.  Three  raps  call  the 
lodge  to  attention.  Our  chaplain  is  about  to  in- 
voke the  Satanic  blessing." 

I  was  astonished  and  shocked  with  what  I  saw 
and  heard  after  that.  When  the  various  rigma- 
roles were  over,  I  exclaimed  to  Wilkinson,  "  This 
is  a  wicked  travesty  on  Free  Masonry.  Neither 
Solomon  nor  Hiram  would  own  it.  The  proper 
Free  Masonry  demanded  a  belief  in  God.  It 
invoked  His  blessing  alone.  Its  chaplains  were 
men  of  such  pious  flavor  as  were  available  —  like 
Elder  Smiley  and  Parson  Weems  —  not  such  as 
that  reprobate  yonder,  who,  if  I  recognize  him 
aright,  is  no  other  than  Uncle  Linas  Godson,  a 
man  who  had  the  reputation,  when  beyond  the 
presence  of  a  minister,  of  never  opening  his 
mouth  without  profanity ;  and  that  past  chaplain 
who  read  the  responses  in  this  awful  Satanic  lit- 
urgy, if  I  mistake  not,  is  old  Galpin  himself,  the 
man  who  might  quite  suitably  have  been  hung  in 
Churchville  in  1890  for  killing  Alfred  Hyson. 
In  the  name  of  Washington  I  protest  that  this  is 
not  Free  Masonry  at  all,  with  all  its  seemly  prin- 
ciples and  worthy  honor  of  Deity." 

"  Dominie,  that  was  ceremony,"  replied  the 
inner  Wilkinson,  peeping  out  a  moment.  "  This 
is  dead  earnest." 

"  Incredible !  "   I  exclaimed.     "  What  possible 


9\%  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

motive  of  reverence,  affection,  self-interest,  any- 
thing real  can  a  soul  have  in  devil-worship  ?  " 

But  the  inner  Wilkinson  had  shrunk  from 
view.  "  Ask  the  chaplains,  Dominie,"  replied  the 
ostensible  man,  "  they  are  watching  you." 

My  question  about  them  had  probably  drawn 
their  attention.     Both  approached  me. 

"  I  suppose  it  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  in- 
troduce you  to  each  other,"  I  remarked  by  way 
of  preface,  wistful  to  sound  about  for  common 
ground  with  them.  "  You  each  knew  me  on  earth 
before  you  knew  each  other  here.  How  —  how 
do  you  like  it  here,  anyway  ?  " 

"  Godson  can  speak  for  himself,"  Galpin  an- 
swered. "  For  my  part  I  have  found  one  world 
just  about  the  same  beastly  botch  of  a  thing  as 
the  other." 

"  The  article  I  am  most  loth  to  dispense  with 
is  a  drink  of  whiskey,"  Godson  confessed.  "  Hell 
is  most  damned  dry.  I'm  damned  glad  to  see  a 
G  —  d  damned  prohibitionist  appearing  here ;  no 
matter  how  you  arrived  here." 

I  will  not  mar  one  of  heaven's  story  records  by 
the  repetition  of  his  monotonous  profanity.  The 
listener,  as  this  account  unrolls,  may  understand, 
without  caring  to  imagine,  that  all  the  speech  of 
Uncle  Linas  was  thus  salted  with  hell  salt.  He 
has  told  me  since  giving  himself  to  Christ  of  how 
he  and  his  cronies  would  sometimes  abandon  them- 
selves to  blowing  off  an  importunate  cyclone  of 
blasphemy,  cursing  God  and  each  other  and  every 


THE  HELL  OF  WISHING  213 

name  of  tender  memory,  until  hell  itself  grew 
weary  of  the  senseless  tumult. 

"  If  that  is  the  most  you  miss,"  I  said  in  reply, 
"  it  seems  to  me  that  you  are  better  off  in  hell 
than  you  were  on  earth.  I  should  think  you 
would  be  glad  to  be  shut  away  from  the  prime 
cause  of  your  downfall." 

"  You  have  no  data  to  know  what  it  is  to  wish 
for  a  drink  for  a  hundred  years,"  he  declared; 
"  to  fain  be  ready  to  sell  your  mother's  soul  for  a 
drink,  to  rage  for  a  drink,  to  howl  for  a  drink, 
to  search  all  hell  even  for  a  thimbleful,  to  scheme 
and  plot  and  struggle  and  pray  to  Satan  for  a 
drink,  and  never  get  one  drop  distilled;  to  be 
sober  for  a  whole  century,  and  still  wildly,  madly 
disposed  toward  a  spree  at  the  end  of  it.  I  tell 
you  I  am  inclined  to  think  you  interloping  pro- 
hibitionists have  had  something  to  do  with  this, 
and  now  that  we've  caught  you,  if  I  cannot  con- 
trive to  make  you  howl,  it  will  be  because  Master 
McGammon  and  my  Lord,  the  Devil,  decline  to 
help  me.  I  would  fain  even  gnaw  on  you  until 
I  get  a  drop  of  blood  out  of  you  by  some  means." 

Galpin  seemed  no  less  vindictive  than  his  col- 
league. "  Get  us  a  drink ! "  they  both  shouted 
at  once.  "  You  sniveling,  ranting  reformer, 
we'll  make  you  find  one  in  some  way,  and  we'll 
make  you  drink  it  with  us.  Ha  !  ha  !  ha  !  that  will 
be  hell- justice  roasted  on  a  spit !  Get  us  a  drink, 
you  meddler!  We  are  dry:  we  are  burning, 
scorching,    parching,    raging    dry !     And    it    is 


214  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

partly  your  fault,  we  think,  and  the  fault  of  such 
as  you,  and  the  fault  of  your  God ;  your  partial, 
cruel,  narrow-minded,  overbearing,  bigoted,  vin- 
dictive, arbitrary,  cold-blooded  tyrant-God.  We 
hate  Him ;  we  hate  you ;  we  hate  the  universe  you 
say  He  made;  we  hate  everything  but  a  drink, 
a  drink!  a  drink//     Oh,  get  it  quick !  " 

I  endeavored  to  calm  them.  "  Mr.  Galpin,"  I 
said,  "  I  remember  one  Sunday  morning  in 
Churchville  when,  as  I  was  on  my  way  from  the 
Presbyterian  Sunday  School  to  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  service,  I  met  you  just  as  I  turned 
the  corner  by  Lankin's  store.  You  were  walking 
straight  on  the  inside  plank  that  held  the  gravel 
sidewalk  in  place,  but  you  must  have  just  come 
out  on  the  car  from  the  city,  for  you  were  so 
drunk  that  there  was  no  apparent  focus  in  your 
sight ;  and  when  I  spoke  to  you,  you  threw  up 
your  arm  as  if  to  ward  off  a  blow,  and  passed  on 
without  a  word.  Would  you  really  wish  to  be 
like  that  again  ?  How  glad  you  ought  to  be  that 
God,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  has  confined  you  to 
hell's  vast  inebriate  asylum,  and  to  the  disem- 
bodied existence  which  drink  cannot  curse!  At 
last  you  have  a  chance  to  think,  to  repent,  to 
pray ! " 

But  they  both  screamed  and  roared  simulta- 
neously at  me  at  once.  "  Think !  We  are  mad 
with  thinking!  We  want  to  get  drunk!  drunk! 
drunk!  and  stay  drunk  till  eternity  gets  old. 
Pray !  we  do  pray !     We  pray  to  Satan,  the  only 


THE  APOLOGY  FOR  IT  215 

one  that  cares  for  us.  It's  pray  or  rave,  with  us. 
Oh,  to  get  drunk  and  go  to  sleep ! " 

"  That  was  what  I  wished  to  ask  you  about,"  I 
remarked.  "  Why  do  you  pray  to  Satan  ?  What 
is  your  conception  of  Satan,  that  you  can  pray 
to  him?  What  good  do  you  think  he  can  do 
you?  In  what  respect  does  he  attract  your  hom- 
age? I  can  understand  how  you  might  pity 
Satan.  I  do,  myself, —  profoundly.  You  might 
possibly  extend  the  principles  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  to  the  limit  of  loving  him  and  of  pray- 
ing for  him  as  the  greatest  enemy  and  hater  of 
your  souls ;  but  how  you  can  pray  to  him,  and 
render  him  adoration,  homage,  total  submission, 
even  a  certain  inverted  consecration,  as  I  heard 
you  doing  a  while  ago  in  the  use  of  your  lodge 
ritual  —  that  is  what  puzzles  and  bewilders  me 
exceedingly." 

"  A  man  must  pray  to  someone,"  Galpin  an- 
swered sullenly.  "  God  never  did  us  a  good  turn. 
He  never  gave  me  half  a  chance.  If  you  knew 
the  man  I  had  to  work  for  when  a  boy,  the  man 
I  had  to  call  '  father.'  And  now  God  has  damned 
us  forever.  What  claim  has  He  got  on  our  wor- 
ship? We  hate  Him.  We've  got  a  right  to  hate 
Him.  Anyway,  we've  got  nothing  to  lose  by  hat- 
ing Him.  Our  state  is  fixed;  our  fate  is  settled; 
our  doom  is  sealed.  That's  another  strong  argu- 
ment we  have  for  worshiping  the  Devil.  We  love 
him  for  the  Enemy  he  has  made.  A  fellow-feel- 
ing makes  us  wondrous  kind.     God  is  down  on 


216  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

the  Devil  and  He's  down  on  us.  The  preachers 
were  down  on  us.  The  old  ladies  were  down  on 
us.  God  was  down  on  us.  So  we  are  here,  and 
there  is  nothing  for  us  to  do  but  to  worship  the 
one  that  runs  things  here.  He  can  do  anything 
that  anybody  can  do  for  us.  And  if  he  couldn't 
do  anything,  we  still  have  to  have  something  to 
worship.  There  isn't  a  spirit  in  hell  that  hasn't 
got  some  sort  of  religion,  if  he'll  only  let  on." 

"  I'm  glad  to  hear  you  say  this,  Mr.  Galpin," 
I  acknowledged.  "  You  used  to  talk  so  differ- 
ently back  in  the  other  life.  Do  you  remember 
one  morning  when  we  walked  across  the  Aqueduct 
Bridge  together  between  the  trolley  lines?  I  tried 
to  lead  you  to  Christ,  and  you  told  me  religion 
was  all  well  enough  for  people  who  were  weak  and 
couldn't  do  right  without  praying;  but  for  your 
part,  you  had  never  done  wrong  in  your  life ;  you 
had  always  done  just  what  you  felt  to  be  right. 
I  didn't  ask  you  in  what  way  you  thought  it  was 
right  to  kill  Alf .  Hyson  because  he  asked  you  for 
the  wages  he  had  earned  six  weeks  before,  and 
cursed  you  when  you  refused  to  pay.  I  waived 
that  point,  and  inquired  if  you  didn't  think  we 
all  needed  the  comfort  of  religion,  the  cheer  and 
the  strength  that  came  from  experiencing  God's 
blessing  on  our  life.  And  you  replied  that  peo- 
ple might  need  it  who  were  weak-kneed  or  chicken- 
hearted.  So  we  separated  to  take  different  cars. 
Then  the  last  time  I  remember  seeing  you  on 
earth,  you  were  in  a  blacksmith  shop   arguing 


NONE  WITHOUT  RELIGION       217 

against  Sabbath  observance  to  a  group  of  by- 
standers, from  the  analogy  of  nature,  which  keeps 
no  Sabbath.  I  am  sure  I  never  heard  of  you 
being  in  a  church,  not  even  the  little  church  we 
built  at  Slab  Town  on  the  lot  you  so  kindly  gave 
us  from  your  wife's  land." 

"  Yes,  and  I  never  would  have  let  you  have 
it,"  Galpin  said,  "  except  from  a  religious  im- 
pulse. You  preachers  never  would  understand 
me.  You  and  your  father  asked  for  the  lot  for 
the  sake  of  the  good  the  church  would  do  the 
community  in  a  humanitarian  way,  as  if  I  cared 
anything  about  that !  You  ought  to  have  talked 
just  as  though  you  took  it  for  granted  that  I 
wanted  to  do  something  pious  myself  once  in  a 
while.  We're  all  like  that,  and  the  stouter  we 
talk  against  religion,  the  more  it  shows  that  we 
can't  get  religion  out  of  our  mind.  There  ain't 
one  of  us  that  can.  Many  and  many  a  Sunday 
morning  I  listened  to  the  sound  of  the  bells  com- 
ing over  the  hills  from  Churchville,  and  wondered 
what  it  was  like  to  be  brought  up  in  Sunday 
School  and  to  go  and  sit  with  your  folks  in 
church.  Many  a  time  I've  gone  back  to  listen  to 
them  since  I  reeled  into  hell,  and  I  have  peeped 
inside,  and  wished  I  could  have  been  different 
while  I  was  living.  But  that  chance  is  all  over 
now,  and  all  the  religion  I  have  for  eternity  is 
the  lodge  ritual  adapted  to  the  god  of  this  lower 
world." 

I  began  to  feel  more  drawn  to  Galpin  than  I 


218  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

had  ever  been  on  earth.  If  men  were  going  to 
open  their  thoughts  to  me  thus  in  hell,  there  really 
seemed  more  hope  of  doing  something  for  them 
than  in  all  earth's  pastoral  endeavor.  I  turned 
eagerly  to  Godson,  to  see  if  he  would  follow  Gal- 
pin's  frank  example.  "  How  is  it  with  you,  Un- 
cle Linas,"  I  asked.  "Yours  cannot  be  Galpin's 
reason  for  forsaking  God's  worship;  for  I  have 
heard  that  you  were  piously  brought  up  and  that 
your  father  was  an  elder  in  the  church." 

"  Yes,  he  was  one  of  the  old  kind ;  my  father 
was  an  elder  of  the  old  stripe,"  Godson  answered. 
"  He  and  his  father  occupied  a  prominent  pew 
in  the  meeting  house,  and  he  also  kept  the 
decanter  always  on  the  sideboard,  the  demijohn 
in  the  closet.  My  father  could  partake  of  a 
brandy  cocktail,  and  then  hie  him  away  to 
sessional  meeting,  to  lead  in  prayer  and  to  quarrel 
with  dignity.  But  strong  drink  from  the  begin- 
ning exercised  a  strangely  opposite  effect  upon 
me.  With  the  first  quaff  there  would  come  into 
my  being  a  singular  spirit  of  depravity.  I 
found  myself  impelled  to  swear,  to  gamble,  to 
look  for  bad  women.  Yes,  I  came  before  the 
session  and  entered  the  full  membership  of  the 
church  as  soon  as  I  reached  years  of  discre- 
tion and  could  repeat  the  catechism:  my  parents 
would  have  it  so.  I  cannot  assert  that  I  ever 
experienced  a  change  of  heart,  or  ever  had  much 
said  to  me  on  the  subject;  but  I  was  never  averse 
to  attending  church  in  my  youth ;  although  rarely 


SATAN'S  ORTHODOXY  219 

sufficiently  sober  to  do  so  in  later  life.  I  feel 
impelled  to  impart  to  you,  Dominie,  what  I 
never  acknowledged  in  your  pastoral  visits  to 
my  room  in  the  old  store ;  that  I  was  accustomed 
to  say  my  prayers  night  by  night,  whenever  I 
slept  alone  and  retained  my  reason  sufficiently 
to  be  conscious  of  going  to  bed.  I  cannot  de- 
clare that  I  ever  meaningly  said  them  to  God; 
but  I  said  them  notwithstanding.  And  I  felt  the 
better  satified  with  myself  for  the  same  after 
every  carousal.  But  since  I  have  descended,  I 
do  really  pray  to  the  one  who  has  not  cast  me  off 
forever." 

"  God  has  not  cast  you  off  forever,  Brother," 
I  protested.  "  It  is  Satan's  deceit,  exercised,  I 
know,  over  many  good  minds,  which  has  led  you 
to  believe  this.  Satan,  just  now,  is  playing 
upon  a  mistaken  theological  belief,  conscientiously 
held  and  carefully  impressed  upon  your  mind 
by  your  religious  teachers;  in  order  to  inflame 
your  hatred  against  the  God  who  still  loves  you 
and  patiently  seeks  to  save  you." 

"  Loves  me?  "  Godson  cried:  "  God  loves  me? 
I  would  like  well  to  hear  one  argument  to  prove 
that  God  still  loves  me,  or  forsooth  that  He  ever 
did  love  me." 

"  Your  continued  existence  proves  it,"  I  re- 
plied ;  "  the  pains  God  takes  to  maintain  you  in 
life,  with  all  the  matters  He  has  on  His  mind." 

"  He  does  it  to  curse  us,"  Galpin  interjected. 
"Life!  I  tell  you,  sir,  we  are  cursed  with  life. 


220  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

If  God  loved  us  or  pitied  us,  He  would  let  us  die 
and  be  nothing.  Let  me  die :  oh  let  me  die !  Oh 
my  Devil !  how  often  I  have  asked  for  that !  But 
he  answers  that  he  himself  would  be  glad  to  die ; 
only  the  spite  of  God  keeps  him  living  on." 

"  That's  another  one  of  his  lies,"  I  answered. 
"  It  isn't  God's  spite  but  His  patient  love.  Do 
you  suppose  God  would  not  gladly  have  done 
with  all  of  you?  What  possible  motive,  but  a 
desire  for  your  reformation,  could  cause  God  to 
keep  on  flowing  and  forcing  His  life  into  you 
through  the  constricted  arteries  of  your  decay- 
ing souls,  to  save  you  from  the  completed  tragedy 
of  a  soul's  decomposition?  What  is  it  in  God's 
heart  but  pity  and  hope  for  you,  and  a  shrink- 
ing from  the  bad  smell  your  fate  would  leave 
in  His  universe  forever? 

"  You  give  me  a  new  motive  to  plot  for 
suicide,"  Galpin  answered.  "  Ha !  ha !  I  never 
thought  of  that.  I'll  die  just  to  spite  God  for 
ever  making  me  like  this.  Ha!  ha!  ha!  destroy 
myself  utterly  in  vice,  and  leave  God  to  think  what 
a  nice  lump  of  corruption  He  left  me  free  to  make 
of  myself!  Ha!  ha!  ha!  I'll  die:  I  will  die. 
Inch  by  inch  I'll  kill  myself!  Trait  by  trait  I'll 
poison,  I'll  smother,  I'll  asphyxiate,  I'll  strangle, 
I'll  mangle,  I'll  bleed  to  death,  I'll  emasculate, 
I'll  infect  with  plague  cultures  every  thing  that 
lives  within  me  until  I  am  dead,  dead,  dead!  so 
dead  that  God  and  all  His  angels  can't  resuscitate 
me  forever." 


AN  IMPOSSIBLE  BOON  221 

"  Poor  puny,  spoiled  child ! "  I  exclaimed. 
"  Do  you  not  know  you  cannot  parse  God  as  the 
subject  of  the  verb  'cannot?'  You  may  prac- 
tise self-murder  to  the  stretch  of  a  million  deaths, 
and  God  will  rescue  your  identity  from  each 
verge  of  total  extinction." 

Then  I  thought  of  poor  Charlie  Lovejoy 
dragged  back  to  life  after  that  awful  dose  of 
chloral  which  he  took  four  months  before  he 
finally  swallowed  an  ounce.  I  asked  Godson  if 
he  had  met  him  in  hell.  "  I  know  he  was  not 
in  good  standing  in  Mystery  lodge,"  I  said. 
"  I  suppose  he  was  such  a  baleful  example  of 
the  extreme  effect  of  alcohol,  that  McGammon  and 
his  fellows  rather  frowned  him  down  and  out. 
But  perhaps  he  may  have  been  reinstated  here." 

Lovejoy  answered  in  person.  "  Did  you  wish 
light  on  the  suicide  mania  ?  "  he  asked  at  once. 
"  Yes,  it  clings  to  me  yet.  The  hardest  part  of 
hell  is  that  you  cannot  get  out  of  it  in  that 
way." 

"Did  you  find  no  relief,  then,  in  death?"  I 
asked.  "  I  have  oftened  wondered  if  even  hell 
may  not  have  brought  partial  relief  to  you. 
Wasn't  it  good  to  get  out  of  your  poor  poison- 
tortured  body  ?  And  with  your  scientific  turn,  and 
your  entire  freedom  from  malice  or  uncharitable- 
ness  toward  any  soul,  with  all  the  glories  of  God's 
universe  spread  out  before  you,  and  myriads  of 
worlds  and  suns  waiting  your  interest ;  how  could 
you  fail  to  really  make  a  good  thing  of  it  by 


222  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

your  voluntary  change  of  residence  from  Tip- 
pleton  to  hell?" 

"  It  looked  somewhat  that  way  to  me,  at 
times,  in  anticipation,"  Lovejoy  answered.  "  The 
fascination  of  suicide  in  my  secret  thoughts, 
I  believe,  had  something  to  do  with  my  course 
of  dissipation  from  the  time  I  began  the  prac- 
tise of  medicine  in  Tippleton.  Even  as  a  boy, 
reciting  *  Cato's  Soliloquy,'  the  germ  of  the  thing 
was  in  my  mind.  But  I  had  everything  lovely  to 
live  for,  and  I  wonder  sometimes  if  God  did  not 
bless  me  so  far  above  the  average  of  mankind, 
with  means,  with  faculty,  with  favor,  with  op- 
portunity, with  devoted  affection,  doting  parents, 
liberal  education,  admiring  friends,  a  fond  wife, 
beautiful  children,  fortune,  popularity,  enjoy- 
ment in  living;  in  order  to  make  the  world  He 
put  me  in  as  attractive  to  me  as  possible.  But 
when  I  began  to  drink  a  little  with  the  men  I  was 
thrown  with  in  the  lodge  and  in  the  church  at 
Tippleton,  this  fascination  of  the  possible  exper- 
iment of  self-destruction  began  to  develop  within 
me.  Handling  my  drugs  I  often  repeated  to 
myself  Cato's  apostrophe  with  regard  to  his 
sword  and  his  roll  of  Plato. 

"  '  This  in  a  moment  brings  me  to  my  end : 
But  this  informs  me  I  shall  never  die.' 

"  And  while  drink  was  so  quickly  robbing  me 
of  everything  but  the  devotion  of  my  heart- 
broken wife  and  mother,  I  did  not  really  care  so 


THE  SUPREME  FASCINATION      223 

much  for  the  whirl  with  which  patrimony,  prac- 
tice, reputation,  health,  intellect,  all  went  by  the 
board;  when  just  a  little  overdose  of  the  drug 
with  which  I  would  brace  up  after  a  spree  might 
strand  the  wreck  of  my  wasted  life  upon  the 
unseen  shore,  and  open  the  wideness  and  the 
wonder  of  a  new  beginning  in  life.  Hell  had 
few  terrors  for  me.  When  they  sent  me  once 
and  again  to  the  Keeley  Cure  and  to  the  State 
Reformatory,  I  never  found  any  difficulty  in  win- 
ning the  friendship  and  favoritism  of  my  keepers. 
Hell  could  hold  no  fiend  so  grim,  that  I  could 
not  make  a  chum  and  a  patron  of  him.  When 
you  came  and  prayed  with  me  in  the  illness  which 
followed  my  first  attempt,  I  liked  it;  I  was 
ready  to  agree  to  any  pious  suggestion  you  might 
make;  I  enjoyed  all  the  tenderness  and  pity  and 
wistfulness  you  all  lavished  on  me;  but  in  my 
inner  heart  I  did  not  repent  of  the  sin  of 
intentional  self-murder,  and  I  did  not  resolutely 
put  out  of  my  thoughts  the  fancy  of  trying 
its  supreme  sensation,  to  see  what  the  beyond  was 
like.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  every  confirmed 
drunkard,  every  abandoned  man  or  woman  has 
this  fascination  of  the  Niagara  plunge  in  his  or 
her  mind,  this  luxury  of  power  over  his  own  life, 
to  be  or  not  to  be.  I  had  hardly  known  a  wish  or 
whim  in  all  my  life  which  had  not  been  granted ;  I 
had  followed  every  line  of  research  and  exper- 
iment which  had  appealed  to  me ;  I  had  indulged 
in  whatever  I  found  pleasant;  why  not  in  dying 


22-1  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

as  I  chose?  I  did  not  really  wish  to  inflict  pain 
on  those  who  loved  me;  but  as  matters  had  been 
going  with  me  for  some  years  past,  I  rather 
thought  the  relief  of  having  it  all  over  would 
weigh  against  any  sorrow  you  all  might  expe- 
rience over  the  way  the  end  came.  I  knew  you 
couldn't  think  hard  of  me,  whatever  I  did.  I 
never  meant  to  be  cruel:  I  never  felt  more 
drawn  to  you  than  on  the  afternoon  when  I 
crossed  the  street  to  chuck  your  little  girl  under 
the  chin,  as  she  sat  in  her  go-cart.  You  re- 
member I  turned  abruptly  and  started  to  go 
around  the  corner  of  Hotel  Tippleton.  You 
said  so  wistfully,  '  Take  care  of  yourself ! '  I 
answered  '  Yes  sir ! '  fingering  the  ounce  of  chloral 
in  my  left  hand  coat  pocket.  My  wife  has 
told  you  what  a  pleasant  time  we  all  had  to- 
gether that  day.  I  had  not  touched  a  drop  of 
liquor  for  more  than  a  week.  Oh,  I  never  wished 
to  be  bad!  I  tried  to  keep  straight  and  attend 
to  practice  after  recovering  from  that  first  at- 
tempt.    But  what  could  a  man  do  in  Tippleton  ?  " 

"  I  blame  myself  that  I  did  not  put  things 
more  strenuously  to  you,"  I  exclaimed.  "  Why 
did  I  not  force  my  way  within  the  curtains  of 
your  reserve,  lay  bare  your  sin  to  your  own  eyes, 
and  warn  you  of  the  state  into  which  you  would 
surely  come  if  you  dared  hurl  yourself  into 
eternity  ?  n 

"It  would  have  done  no  good,"  Lovejoy  an- 
swered.    "  I  would  simply  have  taken  it  as  the 


NOT  PROPERLY  IMPRESSED      225 

kind  of  talk  you  felt  professionally  called  upon  to 
give  me.  Other  preachers  had  talked  hell  and 
judgment  to  me,  or  at  me,  and  it  never  im- 
pressed me.  It  seemed  to  me  that  they  were 
taught  and  supported,  and  expected  to  work  thus 
upon  the  fears  of  people  —  principally  women  and 
small  children.  Their  doctrine  of  hell  did  not 
appeal  to  me  rationally.  It  reminded  me  of  what 
Carlyle  said  about  the  bladder  with  some  dried 
peas  in  it,  shaken  for  a  bug-a-boo.  It  seemed 
almost  too  extreme.  The  scareful  in  it  seemed 
rather  over-done.  It  appeared  to  hold  up  God 
as  one  thing  in  this  world,  and  entirely  the  op- 
posite thing  in  the  next  world,  with  nothing  but 
the  little  accidental  boundary  line  of  dying 
between.  It  would  have  had  more  deterring 
power  over  me,  if  it  hadn't  threatened  so  much 
more  than  I  could  see  was  likely  to  happen. 
Anyway  the  preachers  weren't  somehow  giving 
us  very  much  of  it  of  late.  They  left  it  out  at 
funerals.  They  didn't  make  whole  sermons  of 
it  anymore.  Hell  was  only  a  passing  allusion 
with  them  now-a-days.  The  pastors  and  Chris- 
tian people  didn't  act  as  if  they  believed  in  it. 
They  didn't  go  howling  through  the  streets  to 
warn  people,  as  Finney  said  he'd  do  when  he 
came  to  believe  in  hell.  They  didn't  tell  me  in 
private  that  they  were  concerned  for  my  soul. 
No,  it  wouldn't  have  done  much  good  for  you  to 
have  warned  me.  I  had  to  come  here  to  see  what 
it  was  like." 


226  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Then  how  could  I  have  saved  you  "  I  asked. 
"  How  ought  I  to  have  talked  to  you?  I  wanted 
so  much  to  know !  " 

"  I  wish  I  could  tell  you.  Sometimes  I  think 
you  might  have  set  something  a  little  bigger  and 
harder  before  me  in  the  way  of  getting  con- 
verted and  turning  to  Christ.  If  you  had  told 
me  I  must  turn  in  and  reform  Tippleton ;  I  might 
have  been  fired  by  that  idea  in  the  way  of  an 
experiment.  It  would  have  been  so  different  from 
any  I  had  ever  tried.  I  wouldn't  reproach  you, 
Parson.  I  guess  you  did  your  best  for  me,  with 
all  the  other  people  you  were  trying  to  keep 
straight.  God  knows  I  have  wished  often  enough 
somebody  could  have  kept  me  from  doing  it." 

"Then  you  would  have  liked  to  be  back  in 
life  and  —  in  Tippleton?  "     I  asked. 

Expression  failed  him  for  a  time.  "  Mister 
Prester,"  he  said  at  length,  struggling  with 
strong  emotion,  "  I  woke  up  in  hell  and  found  my 
soul.  The  marvels  of  the  universe  had  little 
interest  for  me  then :  I  said  '  I  will  see  you 
later.'  Irresistibly  I  was  drawn  to  the  one  spot 
where  my  own  lifeless  body  lay  upon  the  old 
couch  in  my  office  amid  the  worn  and  faded 
surroundings  of  our  mortgaged  home.  I  hovered 
over  my  wife  and  children  sleeping.  I  saw  all 
the  heart-breaking  time  when  they  found  my 
corpse  and  found  the  mawkish  note  I  had  written. 
If  I  had  ever  really  thought  that  I  was  in  danger 
of  wearing  out  their  love,  and  that  they  might  be 


THE  TORMENTING  VISION        227 

better  off  without  me;  I  was  quickly  disil- 
lusioned now.  I  would  have  given  all  the  worlds 
I  had  thought  to  interest  myself  in  just  to  .be 
back  and  comfort  them;  to  brace  up  and  be  a 
man  and  what  a  son,  a  husband,  a  father  ought 
to  be.  I  was  with  them  every  minute  of  those 
awful  days ;  yet  I  could  not  speak,  or  touch  one 
of  them,  or  lighten  one  sad  thought^  I  attended 
the  funeral,  and  saw  my  once  beautiful  home 
full  of  weeping  people  who  loved  me  in  spite 
of  my  ill  desert.  I  heard  you  trying  to  speak 
of  how  much  more  you  and  the  rest  of  you  might 
have  done  to  help  me.  I  was  with  you  as  you 
walked  to  the  cemetery  just  up  the  hill,  and  as  you 
all  stood  about  my  open  grave,  and  even  some  who 
I  had  suposed  might  have  a  contempt  for  me 
were  sobbing.  I  saw  friends  going  back  to  the 
house  with  my  chief  mourners  weeping  even 
more  than  when  they  came.  I  knew  all  about  my 
wife's  struggles  and  the  debts  she  payed  off 
little  by  little,  long  after  the  home  was  gone. 
I  was  beside  her  many  a  midnight,  after  the  child- 
ren were  all  in  bed  and  their  clothes  patched  and 
darned,  listening  to  her  pray  and  cry  to  God, 
and  many  a  time  I  have  heard  her  say, '  Oh  Father 
forgive  me  if  it  is  wrong;  but  I  must  pray  for 
my  poor  Charlie  J'  Do  you  think  I  have  been 
enjoying  myself  in  the  wider  universe?  Do  you 
think  I  have  been  calmly  pursuing  scientific  in- 
vestigation? Do  you  suppose  I  could  content 
myself    among   the    stars    when    there    was    my 


228  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

mother  down  in  her  little  bare  room  with  her 
Bible  on  her  lap,  trying  to  find  some  light'  of 
cheer  and  comfort  in  the  awful  shadow  I  had 
brought  over  her  life?  She  was  dying  by  inches 
with  a  gentle  heart-break,  while  she  tried  to  the 
last  to  help  Clara  keep  the  children  clothed  and 
fed.  I  took  in  every  detail  of  their  life  after 
she  was  gone,  and  when  my  wife  followed  her  to 
heaven,  worn  out  with  over-work  and  sorrow,  I 
could  still  catch  sight  of  them  sometimes  and  I 
tell  you  I  have  been  like  Dives  in  hell,  coming 
to  my  soul  and  a  man's  true  concern  for  the 
welfare  of  his  own.  Sometimes  I  can  see  Clara 
and  mother  still  from  afar  off,  and  they  look  as 
if,  in  submission  to  God's  will,  they  were  still 
wishing  for  me." 

«  Why  don't  you  go  to  them  then  ?  "  I  asked. 

Charlie  hesitated  in  replying  just  as  he  would 
have  done  in  the  former  life.  "  You  seem  to  be 
mocking  me,"  he  said  at  length.  "  Do  you 
think  I  haven't  tried  to  get  to  them?  Like  a 
snake  in  the  zoo  knocking  its  head  against  the 
glass,  I  have  hurled  myself  again  and  again  upon 
the  invisible  barrier  which  comes  everywhere  be- 
tween us.  It  seems  so  strange,  even  in  the  spirit 
world,  that  I  should  be  even  so  distantly  cogni- 
zant of  them;  and  yet  I  am  unable  to  attract 
their  attention.  I  can  guess  that  they  think  of 
me;  for  at  the  times  when  I  can  discern  them 
they  seem  to  have  drawn  apart  by  themselves  in 
heaven  and  to  be  comforting  each  other  about 


HELL'S  GREATER  SOUL  229 

something.  I  have  tried  to  forget  them  in  vain, 
and  I  don't  believe  they  have  forgotten  me.  I 
have  pursued  science  somewhat,  as  you  thought, 
since  coming  here.  I  have  forced  my  attention 
upon  it,  in  hope  of  distraction  of  thought;  but 
time  and  again  my  line  of  investigation  and 
experiment  has  come  around  to  this  insistent 
problem  —  how  to  reach  out  even  one  finger,  as 
it  were,  out  of  hell. 

"  I  used  to  dabble  somewhat  in  spiritualism,  as 
you  know,  along  with  other  things,  in  half -sober 
intervals  on  earth;  but  I  have  not  been  able  to 
demonstrate  it  at  all  from  this  side  the  barrier. 
On  every  side  I  am  caged  and  held  in,  even  from 
self  destruction.  Oh  how  I  have  tried  to  destroy 
myself  indeed!  Suicide  did  not  do  it.  I  only 
plunged  into  a  life  that  was  wide-awake,  quiver- 
ing with  intensity,  quickened  and  broadened  into 
a  million-fold  capacity  for  discontent.  I  have 
tried  everywhere,  every  way  for  some  means  to 
stop  thinking  and  to  stop  being.  I  find  myself 
indestructible.  Flaming  suns  will  not  burn  me, 
oceans  cannot  drown  me.  Frozen  planets  have  no 
power  to  numb  me.  Hell  has  no  Lethe  which 
will  help  me  to  forget.  If  I  plunge  into  vice; 
it  only  scorches  and  nauseates  me.  I  have  tried  to 
reach  Nirvana  by  concentrating  my  mind  on  one 
thought,  until  by  sheer  monotony  it  should  come 
to  be  almost  the  same  as  not  thinking;  just  as 
one  prolonged  note  of  sound  ceases  at  last  to  be 
audible.     So  I  would  focus  my  attention  upon 


230  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

some  one  hypnotic  point  for  hours,  days,  or 
weeks,  I  know  not  how  long;  till  some  stray  as- 
sociation of  ideas  would  act  like  a  lighted  train 
of  powder  to  a  magazine,  and  remorse,  longing, 
conjecture  would  explode  into  thousandfold  ac- 
tivity within  me.  The  fire-flood  of  sorrow  would 
sweep  back  upon  my  soul,  as  it  comes  when  one 
wakes  from  sleep.  There  have  been  times  when  I 
would  try  to  put  the  length  of  hell  between  my- 
self and  the  far  vision  of  Clara  and  mother  in  Par- 
adise. Then  again  the  awful  loneliness  of  it 
would  drive  me  back  to  look,  and  wail,  and  call  to 
them,  and  shake  the  bars  of  hell  with  my  an- 
guished struggle  to  get  out  to  them.  I  assure 
you  sir,  there  is  no  way  out.  Hell  is  one  great 
trap,  with  valves  opening  only  inward.  All  the 
dynamite  of  our  rage  cannot  blow  one  little  crack 
in  our  transparent  prison  walls,  all  the  keenness 
of  our  cunning  cannot  pick  its  lock  or  solve  its 
combination.  There  are  so  many  ways  in;  but 
no  way  out,  no  way  out !  no  way  out ! " 

"  Jesus  says  *  I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the 
life,'  "  I  suggested.  "  He  says,  '  No  man  cometh 
unto  the  Father  but  by  me.'  " 

"  Do  you  think  Jesus  would  ever  let  me  get 
back  near  them  ?  "  Lovej  oy  asked.  "  Are  they 
not  much  better  off  never  to  know  about  me 
again  ?  " 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  you  are  nearer  to  them 
now  in  soul,  Charlie ! "  I  answered,  "  than  you 
ever  were  on  earth.     On  the  whole  I  should  say, 


BETTER  FOR  DISCIPLINE        231 

hell  has  been  good  for  you,  as  it  seems  to  have 
been  for  Dives.  The  one  thing  you  need  now  is 
to  find  Christ  in  reality.  He  can  still  do  for  you 
to  the  limit  of  your  faith  in  Him." 

"Faith!"  Love  joy  exclaimed  tremblingly,  "I 
am  the  man  who  has  murdered  faith.  When  I 
took  my  own  life,  I  simply  put  God  out  of  my 
world.  I  took  my  soul  in  my  own  hands  and 
brought  it  here.  God  no  longer  has  any  respon- 
sibility for  me;  neither  have  I  any  shadow  of  a 
claim  upon  him." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  own  it,"  I  replied. 
"  You  are  by  so  much  nearer  to  depending  en- 
tirely upon  free  grace,  and  nothing  else  can  save 
you.  You  are  thus  nearer  salvation  than  Galpin 
and  Godson  here.  They  each  rather  blame  God 
for  being  here.  They  think  He  did  not  give  them 
a  fair  chance  on  earth.  They  are  inclined  to 
feel  resentful  about  it ;  and  until  they  can  honestly 
come  to  some  different  opinion,  of  course  they  can 
neither  repent  nor  pray. 

"  I  hardly  know  so  well  about  Mr.  Galpin," 
Lovej  oy  answered ;  "  but  Uncle  Linas,  you  and  I 
have  been  on  many  a  drunk  together,  and  you 
know  as  well  as  I  that  God  never  made  us  do 
like  that.  Think  of  the  chances  we  had  more  than 
the  heathen  that  never  heard  of  Christ!  We  sat 
side  by  side  in  church  in  the  pew  of  which  we 
each  rented  half,  and  we  might  be  sitting  side 
by  side  in  heavenly  places  now  if  we  had  cared." 

"  The  preaching  strangely  failed  to  help  me 


232  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

stop  the  drinking,"  Godson  said.  "  The  one 
seemed  in  part  to  depend  upon  the  other.  The 
best  pew  rents  came  from  the  tavern  keepers, 
and  at  such  times  as  my  father  set  out  to  circulate 
a  subscription  paper,  he  always  went  to  these 
gentlemen  to  start  it  off.  None  thought  the 
church  could  be  run  without  the  taverns,  and  it 
was  also  often  argued  that  the  taverns  couldn't 
be  run  without  bars,  nor  could  the  bars,  we  knew 
full  well,  be  profitably  run  without  steady  drink- 
ers. So  it  was  that  my  father  felt  constrained  to 
sign  and  indorse  the  annual  applications  for  hotel 
license ;  and  it  seemed  also  fitting  and  incumbent 
upon  us  younger  fellows,  if  we  cared  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  church,  to<  drink  often  and 
freely  at  the  tavern  bars.  It  was  the  self-same 
drink  which  helped  pay  the  preacher  and  which 
helped  bring  me  to  hell." 

"  But  all  that  was  changed  after  the  Dominie 
Prester  here  came  to  Tippleton,"  Lovejoy  sug- 
gested. 

"  To  be  sure,"  Godson  admitted,  "  and  at  that 
we  felt  ourselves  so  agrieved,  to  behold  the  ways 
of  our  forefathers  turned  upside  down,  that  we 
all  but  lost  our  affection  for  the  church,  even  if 
at  that  late  day,  we  could  often  have  sobered  up 
sufficiently  to  attend  it." 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  how  sorry  I  am,"  I  con- 
fessed. "  I  tried  to  save  you,  and  I  only  seemed 
to  alienate  you.  Indeed  I  never  felt  hard  toward 
any  of  you.     I  must  freely  own  that  had  I  been 


WHILE  LIFE,  HOPE  233 

brought  up  under  the  conditions  of  your  life,  or 
of  Mr.  Galpin's,  I  would  probably  have  developed 
about  as  either  one  of  you  did,  and  would  have 
landed  exactly  here,  as  you  did ;  unless  it  had  been 
by  some  most  marvellous  interposition  of  God's 
saving  power." 

"  You  seem  to  have  landed  here  just  the  same," 
Galpin  remarked  grimly. 

"  I  came  by  God's  help  to  save  you  from  hell," 
I  answered. 

"  If  God  is  interested  to  help  anybody  save  us ; 
He  ought  to  have  begun  a  ways  further  back," 
Galpin  answered. 

"  My  dear  sir,"  I  protested,  "  God  was  moving 
for  your  personal  salvation  untold  ages  before 
Adam  and  Eve  sinned  in  Eden." 

"  Why  didn't  He  move  a  little  faster  then,  and 
accomplish  it  ?  "  Galpin  asked.  "  Why  did  He 
put  everything  against  me?  " 

"  And  why  do  you  ask  questions  in  the  past 
tense,"  I  objected,  "  while  eternity  is  still  be- 
fore? For  pity's  sake  upon  your  own  soul  get 
your  attention  off  the  past.  Perhaps  you  were 
under  a  spiritual  disadvantage ;  perhaps  even  your 
oft-repeated  rejection  of  God's  offers  of  mercy, 
your  stifling  of  each  better  impulse  may  have 
worked  in  as  a  permitted  part  of  God's  plan.  I 
don't  mean  that  you  have  any  shadow  of  an  ex- 
cuse for  blaming  God  for  it.  You  freely  chose 
to  hate  everything  good.  By  your  own  obstin- 
ate wrong-headedness  you  have  proved  yourself 


234  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

not  to  have  been  one  of  God's  elect  on  earth ;  but 
it  is  still  open  to  you  to  prove  that  you  are  one 
of  His  elect  for  salvation  out  of  hell.  It  is 
never  too  late  to  mend.  God's  eternal  decree  for 
your  rescue  is  matched  and  mated  with  the  moment 
when  you  rouse  yourself  to  make  your  choice  of 
Him  for  your  Saviour.     Galpin,  do  it  now !  " 

Galpin  launched  a  terrible  oath  against  my  God 
and  His  decrees.  "  If  God's  decrees  have  been 
mixed  up  in  the  hell  of  a  time  I've  been  having 
ever  since  I  can  remember,"  he  said ;  "  then  I've 
got  more  cause  than  I  thought  to  hate  Him.  I've 
often  wondered  why  there  should  be  such  a  per- 
fect devil  inside  me  all  the  time,  and  I've  won- 
dered and  exulted  at  the  power  of  my  own  will 
to  stand  out  against  God  and  to  choose  every- 
thing but  what  was  right ;  and  now  you  tell  me  it 
was  because  I  wasn't  one  of  God's  elect.  That 
makes  the  whole  equation  complete  and  the  whole 
problem  clear.  I  tell  you  I  was  guarded  care- 
fully from  every  good  influence.  I  lived  in 
Christian  communities,  and  no  Christian  ever  took 
me  in  hand  to  tell  me  what  was  what,  and  warn 
me  away  from  hell.  No  sir,  you  neither!  You 
came  the  nearest  that  morning  on  the  bridge ;  but 
you  were  mighty  meachin  about  it  then.  I  was 
started  in  boyhood  on  the  way  to  hell,  and  all  the 
way  along  the  track  was  greased,  and  now  I 
know  who  to  thank  for  it.  Want  me  to  believe 
in  Him  and  love  Him?     Not  much!     I  might 


PATIENS  QUIA  AETERNUS        235 

have  done  it  before;  but  not  since  you've  helped 
me  to  find  Him  out." 

"  Mr.  Galpin,"  I  pleaded,  "  I  wish  you  would 
think  rationally  about  all  this  for  five  minutes. 
All  your  existence  you've  been  hardening  your 
heart,  and  when  Pharaoh  hardened  his  own  heart, 
God  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart.  He  would  have 
softened  it  any  minute  you  would  have  let  your 
heart  soften.  You  were  a  vessel  of  wrath  fitted 
to  destruction;  but  God  has  endured  you  with 
much  long  suffering;  because  He  has  been  plan- 
ning to  make  known  the  riches  of  His  glory  on 
you,  as  a  vessel  of  mercy  before  prepared  unto 
glory,  just  whenever  you  get  tired  of  the  one 
thing  and  ask  Him  to  make  you  the  other.  I 
believe  that  change  is  coming  for  you.  It  might 
have  come  long  ago,  if  you  had  been  willing. 
Don't  tell  me  you  haven't  felt  good  influences. 
That  second  wife  of  yours;  she  told  me  she  had 
been  a  church  member.  She  seemed  a  gentle 
creature  — " 

"  She  was  almost  afraid  to  call  her  soul  her 
own  when  I  was  around,"  Galpin  said.  "  She 
had  about  as  much  influence  over  me  as  a  rush 
blade  in  a  river  bed  has  to  change  the  current. 
I  married  her  for  her  money,  and  when  I  finally 
got  that  fact  beat  into  her  dumb  head,  she  threw 
up  her  hands  and  just  stood  to  deliver.  And 
your  God  has  been  about  as  weak  in  His  line  of 
influence   on   me   as  the  rest   of  you.     I   don't 


236  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

believes  He  cares  for  my  soul,  or  He  would  try  a 
little  harder.  He'd  get  a  club  and  bring  me 
under.  Now  the  god  of  hell  —  the  one  whose 
worship  I  have  been  leading  in  down  here  —  he 
does  things." 

"  Satan  only  acts  by  God's  sovereign  per- 
mission," I  answered.  "  With  all  his  might  and 
cunning  he  finds  himself  baffled,  checkmated  re- 
sistlessly  out-generaled  and  over-mastered  from 
point  to  point.  He  is  fighting  a  losing  battle, 
and  does  things  in  desperate,  hot  haste.  God  has 
the  entire  final  victory  in  view;  so  He  moves  de- 
liberately. 

*  God's  ways  are  dark  but  soon  or  late 
They  touch  the  golden  hills  of  day : 
The  evil  cannot  brook  delay, 
The  good  can  well  afford  to  wait/ 

"  He  is  patient  because  He  is  eternal.  He  is 
long-suffering  toward  us,  not  willing  that  any 
should  perish,  because  He  loves  us  so.  Un- 
erringly He  will  punish  every  sin;  but  His  pun- 
ishment will  be  as  much  for  reclamation  as  for 
retribution.  You  have  been  under  His  rod  ever 
since  I  first  knew  you  and  still  you  are  like  a 
child  too  proud  to  cry  out.  The  very  rebound 
of  your  own  soul  keeps  you  bruised  and  raw. 
When  will  you  get  through  kicking  against  the 
pricks?  I  have  seen  you  take  some  severe  club- 
bing and  act  as  if  you  didn't  feel  it.  How  about 
that  time  we  slapped  the  thousand  dollar  fine  on 


CHECKMATING  LOVE  237 

you  for  persisting  in  selling  liquor  to  the  camp 
on  your  farm?  " 

"  Yes  but  they  knocked  it  down  to  four  hun- 
dred in  the  court  room,"  Galpin  protested. 

"  But  there  were  lawyer's  fees,"  I  persisted, 
"  and,  anyway,  we  blocked  your  game,  and  the 
camp  stayed  dry  all  summer,  much  to  the  satis- 
faction of  mothers  and  sisters  and  sweethearts  of 
the  boys,  over  a  third  of  the  Union.  All  this 
was  God  dealing  with  you.  He  never  really 
abandoned  you  to  prosper  in  evil,  as  some  men 
seem  to  be  abandoned.  He  has  curbed  you  and 
checked  you  at  every  turn.  It  was  sufficiently 
evident  on  earth  that  the  force  in  you  never  quite 
found  lee-way,  and  that  God  never  let  you  draw 
a  really  happy  breath.  And  I  am  sure  you  and 
Godson  expressed  yourselves  frankly  enough  just 
now  about  your  impotence  to  get  the  drink;  to 
show  that  God  is  not  allowing  you  to  have  your 
own  way.  Don't  tell  me  you  think  God  doesn't 
care  for  you,  when  He  takes  all  these  pains  to 
hold  you  back  from  destroying  yourself." 

"  He  does  it  because  he  likes  to  torture  people," 
was  Galpin's  reply.  "  Maybe  I  had  some  little 
chance  once;  but  it  is  gone  now;  and  according 
to  your  belief,  God  from  all  eternity  predestin- 
ated me  to  lose  it.  So  now  He  takes  it  out  in 
torturing  me  with  hell  fire  for  the  remaining 
eternity." 

"  But  Mr.  Prester  claims  that  he  doesn't  be- 
lieve   like    that,"    interposed    Love  joy    gently. 


238  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  He  seems  to  hold  some  modified  and  extended 
kind  of  Calvinism  which  he  never  got  a  chance  to 
encourage  us  with  on  earth;  but  it  sounds  very 
much  to  the  point  down  here." 

"  I  was  feeling  after  it  most  of  the  time 
when  we  knew  each  other  there,"  I  said.  "  I  did 
not  wish  to  give  you  false  hopes.  I  tried  to  set 
before  you  the  straight  road  to  heaven  along  by 
the  cross  of  Jesus.  I  tried  to  save  you  from  tak- 
ing your  chances  on  coming  this  terrible  long 
way  around  through  hell.  I  can  see  now  how  the 
doctrine  I  was  supposed  to  stand  for  just  cut  me 
off  from  really  influencing  you  at  all.  God  knows 
how  sorry  I  am  for  it.  If  you  had  only  pene- 
trated my  ecclesiastical  reserve  at  any  time  and 
asked  me  the  straight  question  if  God  could  be 
God  predestinating  people  to  hell  and  then  keep- 
ing them  there;  I  would  have  eagerly  denied  it. 
So  would  any  other  Presbyterian  minister  of  my 
day.  Some  had  mentally  squirmed  away  from 
the  thought  by  one  method,  some  by  another.  To 
say  that  God's  electing  grace  had  singled  out  cer- 
tain individuals  and  passed  over  others  without 
definitely  and  positively  decreeing  their  damnation 
was  merely  to  juggle  with  words.  Some  were 
secretly  finding  relief  in  the  belief  in  conditional 
immortality  —  that  the  lost  soul  literally  per- 
ished —  a  result  which  seemed  less  harrowing  than 
eternal  punishment.  I  believe  many  of  my  breth- 
ren  had  practically   waved   good-by   to    Calvin 


CONSISTENT  CALVINISM  239 

and  Augustine,  and  at  heart  had  taken  refuge 
in  that  shallow  Arminianism  which  really  lay  at 
the  bottom  of  much  of  the  irreligion  of  our  time, 
making  God  less  than  God  in  men's  conception 
of  Him,  and  abandoning  humanity  to  the  play 
of  its  own  uncertain  choice.  But  the  greater 
number  of  us  just  conscientiously  refrained  from 
thinking  definitely  upon  eternity.  I  was  a  long 
time  coming  to  a  consistent  belief  in  God's  plan 
for  His  world  myself ;  so  what  could  I  say  ?  Still 
I  believe  I  might  have  cheerfully  admitted,  any 
time  I  had  been  questioned,  that  a  lost  soul  in 
hell  would  have  a  fair  right  to  feel  hard  toward 
a  God  who  let  it  be  born  in  sin  with  a  darkened 
mind,  let  it  wind  up  in  hell,  either  by  reprobation 
or  praeterition,  and  there  abandoned  it  to  its 
changeless  fate.  But  now  I  can  confidently  plead 
with  you  to  turn  to  God,  believe  in  Him  and  love 
Him ;  because  I  know  that  He  still  plans  for  your 
salvation.  Your  very  presence  in  hell  is  all  a  part 
of  God's  plan  to  bring  you  to  repentance.  It  is 
your  own  fault,  and  your  own  great  loss,  if  you 
make  it  such  a  long  j  ob  for  Him." 

"  But  perchance  He  planned  it  for  a  long  job 
in  the  first  place,"  Godson  objected. 

"  If  He  did,  it  was  to  bring  you  a  richer  ex- 
perience of  salvation  than  could  have  been  worked 
out  by  a  short  one,"  I  protested.  "  The  obstinacy 
of  your  own  nature  also  has  a  part  in  the  equa- 
tion.    You  do  not  know  God's  plan.     I  do  not 


240  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

know  it.  The  one  sensible  thing  for  you  to  do 
is  to  repent  now  and  turn  to  God  before  worse 
befall." 

Wilkinson  and  Willoughby  had  now  joined  our 
group,  drawn  by  some  parallel  current  of  feel- 
ing, and  I  felt  that  I  had  before  me  a  precious 
congregation  of  five  souls  to  save.  "  Suppose 
we  pray  over  it,  boys,"  I  suggested.  "  God  often 
makes  things  clear  to  us  by  the  method  of  prayer, 
when  we  would  come  only  slowly  to  the  truth  by 
reasoning." 

But  there  was  still  a  barrier  of  unwillingness 
in  their  mood.  "  We  all  know  you  mean  well, 
Dominie,"  the  outside  Wilkinson  acknowledged. 
"  For  my  part,  I  wish  you  could  talk  these  things 
over  with  the  Devil.  We  have  worked  for  him  so 
long,  and  enjoyed  all  the  fun  he  could  give  us: 
we  don't  feel  just  square  to  shake  him  without 
a  word  to  say  good-bye.  It  appears  to  me  your 
doctrine  would  interest  him  the  most  of  us  all.  If 
you  want  to  pull  hell,  I  believe  you'll  have  to  pull 
it  from  the  top  —  first,  Old  Nick,  then  old  Mack. 
After  that  the  rest  of  us  would  come  easy." 

The  suggestion  startled  me;  yet  there  was  a 
fascination  in  it.  I  had  been  intending  to  ask 
them  what  conscious  response  they  received  when 
they  prayed  to  Satan,  or  how  they  were  made 
aware  that  they  really  had  his  attention ;  but  now, 
by  Wilkinson's  own  proposal,  I  could  perhaps 
legitimately  employ  their  help  to  satisfy  my  cu- 


TO  TALK  WITH  SATAN  241 

riosity  on  this  point  by  actual  experiment. 
Throughout  my  life  on  earth  (especially  in  Tip- 
pleton),  and  now  of  late  in  my  acquaintance 
with  hell,  I  had  become  increasingly  conscious  of 
Satan  as  an  opposing,  thwarting,  and  befooling 
power  toward  all  that  moved  for  betterment  with- 
in and  around  me;  but  Satan  had  been  to  me 
'  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican  ' ;  I  had  never 
consciously  addressed  him,  either  by  way  of  apos- 
trophe or  appeal.  The  thrill  of  the  idea  tingled 
in  my  soul  as  Wilkinson  spoke ;  but  it  seemed  like 
our  first  June  plunge  into  the  bay  at  Mill  River ; 
for  the  shudder  of  it  almost  overmastered  the 
thrill.  "  Boys,"  I  protested,  "  this  thing  is  im- 
mense. Somebody  ought  to  do  it,  I  know.  But 
little  Nat  Prester  isn't  really  the  right  man.  We 
should  get  Jerry  McAuley,  or  General  Booth,  or 
Finney,  or  Whitfield,  or  Luther,  or  John  Knox. 
The  most  strenuous  soul-shaker  that  ever  lived 
would  be  weak  for  the  job.  The  Devil  could 
more  easily  overpower  my  sympathies  and  con- 
fuse my  intellect,  by  the  very  yearning  of  my 
heart." 

"  That's  just  how  you  will  get  at  him,"  Wilkin- 
son declared.  "  And  perhaps  you  can  win  him  on 
that  line  —  who  knows  ?  Satan  has  not  often 
been  approached  along  the  line  of  pity  by  your 
profession.  He  would,  maybe,  overpower  you  on 
any  side  but  the  heart-side." 

But  Willoughby   was   skeptical   and   cautious. 


242  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  There  can't  any  good  come,"  he  said,  "  from  a 
parson  hob-nobbing  with  the  Devil." 

"  Friends,"  I  said,  "  I  will  have  to  talk  to  God 
about  this.  I  would  surely  walk  into  trouble,  if 
I  should  exceed  my  marching  orders." 


WHY  CONVERT  SATAN?  243 


CHAPTER  XIII 

It  was  an  encouraging  sign  to  see  these  five 
damned  souls  bow  reverently  as  I  began  to  pray: 
"  Master,"  I  pleaded,  "  show  me  Thy  will.  I  have 
no  heart  for  this  task,  unless  it  is  one  of  Thy 
whatsoevers.  I  have  no  desire  to  talk  with  Satan ; 
if  I  cannot  conscientiously  pray  for  him  first. 
Forgive  me  if  I  err  in  judgment,  if  I  exceed 
Thy  loving  will  while  I  try  to  pray  for  Satan,  as 
wife  and  I,  awhile  back,  were  praying  for  one  of 
his  lieutenants.  I  know  he  is  bad.  I  know  that 
Satan's  pride  and  disobedience  have  been  the 
fountain  head  of  evil  and  of  woe,  which  otherwise 
has  no  explanation  in  God's  world.  I  cannot 
pray  that  Thou  judge  him  not  for  all  the  havoc 
he  has  wrought.  I  am  sure  that  the  horror  of 
it  all  must  have  been  pressing  most  heavily  upon 
Satan's  own  soul  all  these  ages.  I  do  not  ask  to 
have  the  awful  burden  of  it  lifted  by  a  feather's 
weight  from  his  conscience,  or  one  pang  of  his 
remorse  made  less  acute.  Increase  his  capacity 
for  sorrow,  and  let  him  suffer  till  his  proud  heart 
breaks.  In  pity  grant  him  birth-pangs  of  a  bet- 
ter soul.  Oh  my  Saviour,  my  God !  my  intellect  is 
too  limited  to  take  in  even  more  than  a  little  of 
Thy  great  plans :  I  can  only  feel  that  if  it  were  my 
world,  I  would  move  most  earnestly  to  bring  the 
worst  one  in  it  to  repentance.  I  cannot  in  my 
littleness  see  any  other  possible  way  to  bring  it 


244  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

out  all  glad  in  the  end.  Probably  the  only  way 
to  do  it,  would  be  to  deal  strenuously  with  him, 
bring  his  plans  to  nought,  rescue  his  victims,  re- 
duce his  conquests,  confine  him  to  a  narrowing 
prison  house  of  failure ;  and  yet  love  and  pity  his 
wrong,  proud  soul,  until  love  and  sternness  min- 
gled should  triumph  in  his  complete  salvation ; 
that  throughout  all  the  eternity  beyond  he  should 
love  me  best  of  all  my  creatures,  having  been  most 
forgiven.  If  I  can  help,  even  by  the  stirring  of 
a  hair,  to  change  the  Devil's  mind  about  all  this, 
I  will  be  so  glad  to  talk  with  him ;  although  I 
shrink  and  tremble,  and  would  rather  keep  to  the 
little  tasks  of  winning  the  humblest  of  his  de- 
luded ones.  Please  do  not  let  me  take  any  step 
which  would  compromise  loyalty  to  God  in  any 
way,  or  hinder  my  influence  with  these  men  who 
listen  while  I  pray.  Oh  Christ!  help  them  to 
seek  salvation  themselves,  and  not  wait  for  the 
Devil.  Help  them  manfully  to  throw  off  his 
yoke  and,  by  God's  aid,  to  triumph  over  his 
malice.  Help  them  not  to  think  of  some  possible 
easy  way  of  being  saved,  after  the  leading  spirits 
of  evil  have  succumbed  and  left  it  easy  for  their 
dupes  to  shake  off  the  unholy  spell  cast  upon 
them;  but  rather  help  them  to  glory  in  revolt 
against  Devil  and  ex-rumseller  alike,  and  to  take 
so  much  more  satisfaction  in  getting  converted 
to  God  because  it  is  hard  in  the  environment  of 
hell,  and  because  it  means  fight.  Take  care  of 
little  me,  oh  God,  in  this  strange  enterprise;  for 


HELL'S  BEATIFIC  VISION         245 

I  hardly  know  where  I  am  coming  out.  Even 
now  stop  me  if  it  is  wrong ;  for  I  feel  Satan  com- 
ing at  my  call,  and  I  am  weak  and  cowardly  to 
deal  with  him,  unless  I  can  be  sure  it  is  God's 
own  commission  for  me  just  now.  David  and 
Goliath  hardly  avail  for  a  comparison  of  dis- 
parity in  this  encounter;  and  unless  I  can  go  to 
meet  this  greatest  Philistine  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  I  would  rather  even  yet,  retreat 
from  meeting  him,  and  be  laughed  at  by  all 
hell." 

Of  all  the  wonderful  things  about  that  com- 
plexity of  marvels  which  we  call  living,  the  most 
stupendous  is  prayer.  That  the  finite  may  talk 
with  the  Infinite  One  and  be  answered,  as  I  at 
that  moment,  with  the  complete  assurance,  "  Cer- 
tainly I  will  be  with  thee !  "  is  perhaps  the  central 
mystery  of  living;  passing  the  explanation  of 
ages:  yet  within  the  test  of  any  child.  This  ex- 
perience of  answered  prayer,  which  alone  gave 
meaning  to  our  life  on  earth,  and  which  thrills 
the  life  of  heaven  with  its  increasing  wonder, 
finds  its  crowning  glory  of  ineffable  surprise 
when  it  comes  to  us  in  hell.  There  at  that  mo- 
ment I  saw  God  in  Christ  as  I  had  never  seen 
Him  before ;  even  in  a  hundred  years  of  heaven  — 
not  with  faith  changed  to  sight,  but  with  faith 
clarified  into  a  soul-sense  infinitely  greater  than 
sight.  The  beatific  vision  of  soul  into  Soul,  each 
the  finite  soul  and  the  Infinite  Soul,  yearning  with 
a  common  pity  and  reaching  forward  with  a  com- 


246  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

mon  hope  toward  the  same  all  compensating  joy, 
came  to  me  there  in  hell  as  it  had  never  quite 
come  even  in  heaven.  I  saw  more  in  my  Saviour; 
yet  what  I  saw  seemed  only  the  beginning  of  what 
He  had  to  show  me,  whose  revealing  would  come 
with  the  deeper  experience  of  eternities  still  un- 
veiled, and  I  was  ready  to  exclaim  with  joy  of 
infinite  gain  from  measurable  sacrifice  — 

Just  to  be  here  and  to  look  on  Thy  face 
Would  through  the  ages  be  glory  for  me. 

So  I  was  prepared  to  meet  "  the  spirit  who  stands 
opposed."  My  Master's  presence  did  not  leave 
me  as  I  entered  that  of  the  Master  of  the  un- 
saved. I  knew  that  he  stood  behind  me  while  I 
stood  to  face  Apolyon.  How  much  of  either 
transcendent  presence,  or  of  what  passed  between 
me  and  each  was  apprehended  by  my  five  earth- 
born  companions  I  cannot  now  conjecture.  Per- 
haps even  Satan  may  be  better  known  by  one 
from  whose  eyes  the  scales  have  fallen  in  conver- 
sion, and  Satan  may  have  felt  safe  in  telling  me 
things  at  that  hour  which  he  felt  his  dupes  could 
not  receive,  even  if  I  told  them.  I  noticed  only 
that  they  lingered  near  quietly,  and  with  a  certain 
subdued  reverence,  which  could  hardly  have  been 
paid  to  the  evil  one  alone. 

I  am  sorry  to  disappoint  any  one  who  may  an- 
ticipate an  exciting  description  of  my  meeting 
with  the  Devil.  There  was  little  that  was  spec- 
tacular about   it.     When  the  interview  came,   I 


INTERVIEWED  BEFORE  247 

was  astonished  most  at  the  ease  with  which  it  was 
obtained,  and  at  the  matter-of-course  manner  in 
which  it  began.  I  was  reminded  somewhat  of  an 
occasion  on  which  some  of  us  pastors  in  St.  Louis 
found  an  interview  with  Colonel  Ed.  Butler,  the 
city  boss,  for  the  purpose  of  inquiring  why 
Protestant  churches  were  apparently  discrim- 
inated against  in  the  placing  of  electric  arc  lights 
along  the  city  streets.  I  was  impressed  now  to 
find  myself  in  the  presence  of  an  over-mastering 
intelligence  trained  and  exercised  along  lines  with 
which  I  was  unfamiliar,  one  whose  thoughts  over- 
lapped mine  in  every  direction,  even  while  they 
were  flowing  in  an  opposite  current,  and  one  who 
could  so  easily  confuse  and  entangle  my  small 
conceptions,  that  my  only  safeguard  in  dealing 
with  him  would  be  in  a  childlike  directness  and 
simplicity  of  purpose.  I  was  astonished  to  find 
that  the  manner  of  conversation  with  Satan  was 
not  essentially  different  from  that  with  a  fellow 
human  spirit,  or  with  one  of  the  angels,  and 
while  I  could  not  mentally  grasp  the  size  of  the 
personality  with  which  I  was  dealing,  I  could 
distinctly  apprehend  the  particular  thought 
which  he  condescendingly  directed  at  me  in  re- 
sponse to  my  own.  I  began  by  telling  his  lord- 
ship that  I  had  come  into  his  dominions  looking 
for  lost  souls,  and  that  these  five  of  his  choicest 
subjects  had  conceived  the  desire  to  have  me  in- 
terview him  first.  "They  feel,"  I  said,  "that 
you  should  set  the  example  of  repentance,  and  of 


248  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

turning  to  God,  which  will  be  easy  for  them  to 
follow." 

His  Satanic  Majesty  did  not  laugh,  as  I  had 
feared,  but  answered  gravely  that  by  worthier 
reasoning  it  would  seem  far  easier  for  these  men 
to  practice  repentance  who  had  been  opposed  to 
God  less  than  two  centuries,  than  for  himself, 
whose  enfranchisement  dated  from  before  the 
dawn  of  human  history.  "  They  are  free  to  re- 
pent, if  they  wish,"  he  said.  "  I  would  not  stand 
in  the  way.  I  am  ready  to  tell  them  at  any  time 
that  they  would  be  better  off  in  heaven.  The 
poor  accomodations  and  consolations  I  am  able  to 
afford  them  here  do  not  make  up  for  their  loss 
in  being  cast  out  from  paradise.  They  will  cer- 
tainly get  on  the  good  side  of  God,  if  they  know 
on  which  side  their  bread  is  buttered." 

It  reminded  me  of  some  of  the  temperance 
talk  I  had  heard  from  saloonkeepers.  "  But  it 
is  your  influence  which  holds  them  back,"  I  pro- 
tested. "  But  for  you,  they  and  the  world  would 
never  have  known  an  evil  thought.  You  have 
been  the  author  of  the  great  sorrow,  and  it  surely 
lies  within  your  power  to  bring  in  at  one  wide 
flood,  the  triumph  of  redemption's  greater  joy; 
for  with  your  conversion  the  current  of  evil  would 
cease  to  flow  for  lack  of  a  source." 

But  Satan  demurred  at  this  assertion.  "  The 
love  of  liberty  will  always  spring  in  virile  hearts," 
he  declared.     "  Should  one  succumb  to  God,  an- 


SATAN'S  FATHER  TOO  249 

other  would  promptly  step  into  his  place  and  raise 
anew  the  standard  of  independence." 

"  But  how  can  there  be  any  real  independence 
of  the  All  Father,"  I  questioned.  "  You  your- 
self owe  your  existence  and  your  original  ex- 
alted nature  to  Him.  He  keeps  you  moment  by 
moment  from  returning  to  nothingness.  He  up- 
holds all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power." 

"  Yet  he  cannot  keep  me  from  living  my  own 
life,"  Satan  exclaimed  exultingly.  "  He  cannot 
coerce  me  into  loving  Him,  so  long  as  I  prefer  to 
hate." 

"  Cannot,  because  will  not,"  I  ventured  to  an- 
swer. "  God  takes  a  pride  in  your  freedom  and 
prefers,  perhaps,  to  win  you  back  to  a  glad  and 
willing  acceptance  of  His  forgiveness  and  His 
love.  Pardon  me,  oh  Devil !  but  my  Heavenly  Fa- 
ther seems  to  me  to  have  borne  with  you  all  these 
ages  as  a  parent  carrying  a  little  child  during 
the  tantrum  of  an  hour.  Your  resistance  to  His 
will  and  to  His  love  has  been  just  that  futile  and 
necessarily  evanescent.  Free?  you  are  free  to 
shake  your  puny  fist  at  His  great,  kind  face  for  a 
little  while ;  but  His  love  in  severity  must  conquer 
you  in  the  end.  It  is  His  arms  that  are  around 
you  in  all  your  rage,  and  you  can  never,  never, 
never  forget  that  He  is  your  father  still." 

"  Now  you  are  allowing  your  anthropomorphic 
fancies  to  run  away  with  you,"  Satan  protested. 
"  Because  God  enj  oys  the  accidental  advantage 


250  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

of  previous  existence  and  of  creative  power,  why 
should  I  find  myself  constrained  to  truckle  to  His 
wishes,  or  to  pretend  that  I  like  His  ways  when 
I  do  not  ?  The  existence  and  the  role  in  life  which 
He  has  conferred  upon  me,  has  not  had  in  it  much 
to  thank  Him  for.  He  needed  a  protagonist,  ac- 
cording to  His  conception  of  what  would  make  the 
plot  of  the  drama  of  His  universe  most  interest- 
ing ;  so  He  let  me  be  it.  The  best  I  can  do  is  to 
play  my  part  with  vigor  and  persistency,  but 
why  could  I  not  have  had  Michael's?  " 

"  Simply  because  you  chose  the  part  of  Satan," 
I  replied.  "  You  thought  you  liked  that  best ; 
yet  surely  you  must  be  almost  getting  enough 
of  it." 

"  Why  did  He  let  me  choose  the  part  in  the 
first  place,"  Satan  protested.  "  He  foreordains 
whatsoever  comes  to  pass.  Why  did  He  not  put 
in  train  some  of  all  this  great  love  you  dilate 
upon  and  persuade  me  to  think  again  before  I  cast 
the  die  of  revolt.  That  mistake  once  made,  where 
can  love  come  in  again?  Can  God  show  it,  try- 
ing to  bring  me  to  humiliate  myself  by  ever 
throwing  up  the  fight,  which  He  originally 
planned  or  permitted  me  to  begin  ?  " 

"  You  forget,  sir,"  I  replied,  "  that  I  was  not 
there  when  it  happened.  I  can  hardly  conceive 
how  this  estrangement  of  your  grand  spirit  from 
God  ever  began.  We  mortals  have  a  theory  that 
it  was  pride.  As  the  great  light-bearer,  you  stood 
next  to  the  Godhead  in  rank  and  in  faculty,  and 


HIS  PREDESTINATED  PART      251 

you  conceived  the  thought  of  being  the  other  god 
—  what  Paul  calls  the  '  god  of  this  cycle.' 
Strange !  when  there  was  no  older  devil  to  suggest 
this  one  evil  thought  to  you !  Where  could  it 
have  come  from  ?  God  could  not  have  placed  it  in 
your  mind.  He  is  not  the  author  of  evil,  neither 
tempteth  He  any  man  or  angel.  You  must  have 
been  drawn  away  by  your  own  lust  of  prestige. 
So  you  chose  your  lot  simultaneously  with  God's 
eternal  foreordination  of  your  lot.  Was  not 
that  the  way  of  it?  " 

"  Young  man !  "  Satan  replied  thoughtfully, 
"  I  have  been  puzzling  over  this  problem  for  ages, 
and,  as  Milton  suggests,  it  is  still  the  central 
theme  of  many  a  debate  in  hell.  I  believe  this 
whole  tiresome  business  was  God's  fault.  There 
was  a  time  when  I  was  not,  and  God  was  thinking 
over  all  this  even  then." 

"  It  wasn't  time  but  eternity,"  I  protested. 
"  And  it  isn't  scientific  to  say  God  was  thinking. 
God  thinks  in  an  eternal  N-O-W." 

"  Never  mind !  it  has  had  the  same  effect  for 
my  wretched  career,"  complained  Satan ;  "  and 
I  wish  to  know,  what  did  He,  or  does  He,  do  it 
for?  Why  should  I  be  singled  out  to  stir  up  all 
this  muss,  and  to  bear  the  infamy  of  the  uni- 
verse?" 

"  I  cannot  tell,"  I  replied,  "  unless  it  is  be- 
cause you  like  the  job.  There  is  only  one  key  to 
all  this  riddle,  and  that  I  believe  you  carry  in 
your  hand,  if  you  wish  to  use  it." 


252  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"Tell  me!"  said  Satan.  "It  is  the  key  of 
repentance,"  I  replied. 

Satan  laughed  at  last,  and  hell  shook.  "  Re- 
pentance ?  "  he  cried.  "  For  me  ?  Young  fel- 
low, you  are  talking  wildly.  Try  to  think  of  the 
murders  I  have  planned  and  consummated.  Try 
to  think  of  the  wars  I  have  stirred  up  and  of  my 
glorying  in  the  carnage  of  a  million  battlefields. 
I  have  robbed  millions  of  innocence  and  honor;  I 
have  spoiled  the  happiness  of  millions  of  homes 
and  lives.  I  have  gloated  over  meanness  and  in- 
justice; I  have  been  on  the  side  of  the  theft  and 
the  lie.  I  tell  you  I  love  it  all.  I  smack  my  lips 
in  blood  and  pollution.  You  say,  '  Try  what  re- 
pentance can.'  I  answer,  '  But  what  can  it  when 
one  cannot  repent  ?  ' 

"  The  stubbornness  of  King  Henry's  knees 
was  as  wax  compared  with  that  of  my  heart.  Re- 
pentance? What  would  God  want  with  my  re- 
pentance? If  He  should  let  me  repent  and  be 
forgiven,  He  would  advertise  to  his  angelic  uni- 
verse that  there  was  no  spirit  in  His  justice.  He 
would  make  himself  the  laughing  stock  of  hell. 
Sometimes  repentance  may  come  too  late.  We 
may  find  no  space  for  it,  though  we  seek  it  care- 
fully and  with  tears.  Repentance?  Pah!  you 
disgust  me.  Like  Papoleon  with  the  impossible, 
I  would  say,  '  Never  mention  to  me  that  beast  of 
a  word.'  Defiance  is  the  word  for  me.  With 
open  scorn,  with  exhaustless  subterfuge  and  coun- 
terplot, I  will  still  spit  it  in  God's  face.     Were 


SATAN  YEARNS  TO  REPENT  253 

every  heart  turned  craven,  were  hell  shrunken 
by  desertion  until  I  alone  was  left,  were  God's 
hand  heavy  upon  me,  and  His  final  word  to  me, 
*  Repent  or  moan  forever ! '  I  would  still  bite  and 
tear  His  hand  and  snarl  my  deathless  hate.  But 
as  yet  there  seems  not  so  much  need  for  me  to 
contemplate  this  possible  finale.  Hell  is  still 
something  of  a  kingdom.  The  biggest  half  of 
things  still  comes  my  way.  And  I  can  say  still 
with  some  complacency,  '  Better  to  rule  in  hell 
than  serve  in  Heaven.'  " 

"  And  yet,"  I  replied,  "  the  fact  that  you  have 
thus  much  to  say  about  it  rather  reassures  me 
that  the  subject  of  repentance  has  been  often  in 
your  thoughts.  The  old  love  that  was  in  the  be- 
ginning between  you  and  God  still  yearns  some- 
where within  you.  And  I  still  think  this  is  the 
key  to  the  whole  problem  of  God's  plan  for  your 
life.  Some  day  you  will  try  it  in  the  lock  of  hell. 
And  when  you  turn  to  God  with  the  heart-tears 
held  back  for  ages,  you  will  find  a  place  waiting 
for  you  which  belongs  to  no  one  else.  Of  all  the 
universe,  you  will  love  most,  because  most  for- 
given. I  cannot  foresee  whether  you  will 
foolishly  wait  to  be  the  last  to  give  in 
your  allegiance,  or  whether  just  now,  in  re- 
sponse to  my  poor  pleading,  you  will  humble 
yourself  before  God,  and  turn  the  might  of  your 
satanic  influence  into  the  undoing  of  your  dread- 
ful work  and  the  bringing  back  of  lost  souls  to 
God.     Whenever  you  do  it,  that  will  be  your  first 


254  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

rational,  well-balanced  action  since  before  you 
did  the  other  thing.  Oh  Satan,  do  it  now !  I  say 
repentance  will  prove  to  be  the  key  to  the  riddle 
of  your  strange  destiny;  because  I  do  believe  it 
would  bring  to  your  poor,  lacerated  soul  the 
greatest  joy  of  forgiveness,  the  grandest  mission 
of  reparation  ever  foreordained  for  a  created  be- 
ing. Why  do  you  keep  yourself  out  of  it  for  a 
moment,  or  for  an  eternity !  Oh  let  your  strained 
heart  break  in  penitence  just  now!  Christ  is 
here  and  He  is  waiting  for  your  love.  His  atone- 
ment is  great  enough  to  avail  even  for  you.  Oh 
for  the  pity  of  it,  don't  be  a  fool  any  longer !  I 
know  I  am  only  a  tiny  bit  of  a  mortal,  and  you 
are  but  just  short  of  infinite ;  yet  I  am  right  and 
right  with  God,  and  you  are  so  altogether  wrong ! 
Poor,  foolish  Devil !  I  dare  to  pity  you.  Won't 
you  come  to  Jesus  now  and  be  saved?  " 

Satan  was  moved.  The  wonderful  thing  of  it 
all  was  to  see  suns  and  worlds  still  moving  on  in 
their  orbits  while  he  hesitated.  I  could  only  pray 
dumbly  and  stretch  out  my  arms  to  him  in  spirit. 
And  I  felt  from  behind  greater  arms  stretched 
out  to  him  above  mine.  The  keen  pain  of  a  frozen 
soul  approaching  fire  was  in  Satan's  aspect. 
Gleams  of  hidden  radiance  came  in  opal  tints  to 
the  surface  of  his  spirit.  Anguished  memories, 
incredible  hope,  contrition  overmastering  pride 
moved  in  mighty  currents  up  and  across  the  sea 
of  his  great  being.  My  consciousness  rocked 
and  swayed  like  a  frail  boat  brought  in  touch 


HE  HESITATES  255 

with  upheaving  waters.  The  world's  long  hope 
deferred  seemed  on  the  point  of  sudden  con- 
summation. A  moment  more,  and  God's  universe 
might  be  reeling  with  the  sweep  of  a  mighty  joy. 
The  great  Sinner  stood  at  the  point  of  repentance, 
The  unconsciousness  of  other  knowing  beings  as 
to  what  was  impending  rendered  the  moment  all 
the  more  intense.  Only  the  five  human  compan- 
ions must  have  felt  something  of  it,  for  they  lay 
prostrate  beside  me.  With  the  bending  of  that 
mighty  will  which  was  hesitating  there,  hell  would 
crack  open.  Heaven's  love  would  meet  perdition's 
penitence  in  worldwide  ecstacy  of  grief  and  joy. 
All  hung  upon  one  sigh  from  Satan's  soul  for  bet- 
ter things.  Would  it  come?  Would  the  strong 
heart,  age-hardened  in  evil,  break  just  now?  I 
beheld  his  indecision  with  eager  gaze,  every  fibre 
of  my  thoughts  quivering,  tingling  with  expecta- 
tion and  with  awe. 


256  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 


CHAPTER  XIV 

But  there  came  a  mysterious  shadow  over 
Satan's  aspect  which  had  begun  to  glow  with  un- 
speakable possibilities.  The  change  puzzled  and 
frightened  me,  for  it  did  not  seem  to  come  from 
within,  but  was  rather  like  the  shadow  of  an  ap- 
proach cast  from  without.  My  heart  turned  sick 
with  disappointment  and  foreboding,  as  I  waited. 
Was  there  some  greater  Devil  coming,  able  to 
check  the  movings  of  prevenient  grace  upon  the 
soul  of  this  one?  As  the  newcomer  drew  near 
every  trace  of  conscience,  of  compunction,  of  finer 
impulse,  was  blurred  over  and  disappeared  from 
the  Satanic  soul.  With  alarm  I  turned  to  regard 
this  unexpected  visitor.  My  astonishment  deep- 
ened as  I  perceived  it  to  be  of  human  race  and  at 
last  divined  that  it  was  of  female  sex.  A  woman 
spirit,  swollen  to  monstrous  size  and  power,  hid- 
eous for  very  symmetry  of  soulless  form,  confront- 
ed me  with  a  gaze  of  what  might  have  been  anger, 
if  less  mixed  with  cunning.  "  This  is  my  earth- 
wife,"  Satan  said  in  introduction.  "  By  the 
way,  she  must  have  been  a  contemporary  of  yours, 
and  although  you  probably  never  met,  you  must 
have  heard  of  her  exploits.  She  was  a  Mrs. 
Guiness,  and  was  at  one  time  engaged  in  farming 
and  a  few  other  things  out  in  Illinois." 

I  hardly  knew  how  to  reply  for  embarrassment 
at  the  sudden  recollection  of  a  newspaper  story 


THE  WORSER  DEVIL  257 

read  at  random  one  Saturday  night,  when  I  was 
looking  to  see  if  my  church  notice  was  in  straight. 
How  could  I  acknowledge  my  realization  that  this 
must  be  the  woman  who  made  herself  useful  in- 
terring about  her  house  and  barnyard  the  bodies 
of  murdered  people  sent  to  her  from  Chicago  in 
trunks  and  boxes;  varying  the  monotony  of  this 
by  attracting  to  her  rural  home,  by  means  of 
matrimonial  advertisements,  men  who  were  never 
heard  from  subsequently?  But  Satan  read  it 
all  in  my  expression,  and  replied  to  that,  "  It  is 
true  that  this  is  the  lady.  She  seemed,  for  sheer, 
sordid  deviltry,  a  worthy  mate.  Lucretia  Borgia 
seemed  hardly  to  be  named  in  comparison,  even 
if  all  the  stories  told  about  her  were  true.  Be- 
sides this  lady  had  so  long  sought  for  a  worthy 
husband;  it  seemed  only  poetic  justice  that  her 
diligence  should  be  suitably  rewarded  at  last." 

I  was  interested  as  well  as  horrified.  I  very 
much  wished  to  ask  a  question,  but  hesitated  for 
fear  of  seeming  discourteous.  Again  the  satanic 
insight  helped  me.  "  My  dear,"  he  said,  "  I 
think  the  reverend  gentleman  has  something  to  say 
to  you." 

"  Then  let  him  say  it  while  he  has  the  chance," 
the  former  Mrs.  Guiness  responded. 

"  I  was  wondering  how  you  must  find  it,"  I  ex- 
plained — "  to  have  a  husband  you  cannot  dispose 
of,  and  to  live  in  a  world  of  men  spirits  that  are 
indestructible." 

I  realized  that  I  had  made  a  mistake  as  soon 


258  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

as  I  had  said  it.  The  queen  of  hell  expanded 
by  several  sizes,  and  with  her  back  turned  to  me, 
demanded  of  her  illustrious  husband  why  she 
should  be  expected  to  talk  to  me.  "  Put  him  in 
the  dungeon,"  she  said  shortly. 

"  We  can  attend  to  that  later,"  Satan  said,  to 
appease  her.  "  Perhaps  the  worst  punishment 
of  presumption  we  could  give  him  in  the  mean- 
while would  be  to  tell  him  a  few  things,  and  see 
him   tremble." 

"  Am  I  at  liberty  then  to  ask  such  questions  as 
I  may  feel  drawn  to  ask  ?  "  I  inquired  somewhat 
timidly. 

"  Go  ahead,"  replied  the  Infernal  Consort.  "  I 
suppose  we  can  stand  it  as  long  as  you  can." 

I  avoided  at  first  the  question  I  had  asked  be- 
fore, with  an  inkling  that  my  own  probable 
sentence  was  somewhat  closely  bound  up  in  the 
answer  to  it ;  but  I  suggested  another  cause  I  had 
found  for  wonderment  about  this  singular  woman. 
"  Did  you  never  dread  the  stalking  of  ghosts 
about  your  farmhouse?  Did  your  flesh  never 
creep  in  the  night  when  you  were  alone  with 
some  corpse?  " 

"  Do  you  suppose  I  would  have  taken  to  that 
line  if  I  hadn't  had  nerve?  "  she  answered.  "  I 
took  a  pride  in  my  work;  I  guess  the  same  as 
you  ever  did  in  yours." 

"  But  when  the  work  was  all  done,"  I  suggested. 
"  When  the  last  guilty  evidence  was  removed  and 
the  strain  of  secrecy  and  of  fear  of  stumbling 


HOW  COULD  SHE?  259 

against  neighbors,  or  hired  man,  in  the  dark,  was 
lightened;  when  there  was  nothing  left  to  do  but 
think,  and  the  details  of  the  last  job  were  fresh 
in  your  mind —  " 

"  I  was  generally  tired  enough  to  go  to  sleep," 
Mrs.  Satan  answered.  "  It  was  a  sort  of  old 
story  to  me,  you  know.  I  got  my  hand  in  when 
I  kept  a  lying-in  place  for  abortions  in  the  city. 
Sometimes  the  patients  died  under  treatment,  and 
their  remains  had  to  be  attended  to  in  some  way." 

"  But  why  did  you  burn  your  farmhouse  and 
decamp  ?  "  I  queried.  "  No  one  seems  to  have 
suspected  you  definitely.  You  were  not  in  any 
new  danger.  Was  it  not  your  own  nervous  con- 
dition which  called  for  a  change?  Perhaps  you 
had  gotten  to  seeing  things  at  night." 

She  did  not  altogether  deny  the  truth  of  my 
supposition.  "^The  best  thing  gets  tiresome  after 
awhile,"  she  said.  "  You  preachers  have  noth- 
ing to  say.  Didn't  you  usually  make  a  change 
every  three  or  four  years?  " 

"  Well  tell  me,"  I  asked  more  eagerly,  "  Did 
you  never  feel  any  movings  of  compassion  over 
the  lacerated  corpse  of  a  poor  fellow  being  sent 
to  you  for  interment  —  the  victim  of  some  plot  or 
quarrel  not  your  own?  Did  you  never  have  to 
struggle  with  some  softer  feeling  in  luring  to 
their  death  your  would-be  husbands  —  in  mixing 
the  poison,  or  striking  the  blow  or  fatal  stab,  or 
springing  the  trap  (or  however  else  you  did  it) 
which  cut  each  one  off  in  the  height  of  his  hopes  ? 


mo  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Surely  some  of  them  must  have  been  good-looking 
fellows  —  somewhat  soft,  perhaps ;  weak,  no 
doubt;  but  amiable,  good-natured,  amenable,  in- 
nocent; or  they  wouldn't  have  brought  money 
with  them  in  coming  to  marry  you.  You  must 
have  written  affectionate  letters  —  wistful,  pa- 
thetic, pensive.  You  must  have  charged  each  to 
come  secretly  —  that  no  one  might  know  until 
your  hearts  had  found  opportunity  to  grow  to- 
gether in  the  honeymoon.  How  could  you  take 
such  advantage  of  an  unsuspecting  fellow  crea- 
ture? How  did  you  feel  when  you  saw  each 
writhing  in  his  last  agony  —  with  the  look  of 
speechless  reproach  in  filming  eyes  —  when  life 
went  out  and  you  were  in  that  awful  loneliness 
with  the  dead?  " 

"  You  want  to  know  so  much,"  the  woman  an- 
swered. "  I'll  just  tell  you,  and  let  you  stand 
it  the  best  you  can.  The  kind  that  were  sent  to 
me  in  trunks  and  boxes  I  felt  somebody  had  to 
take  care  of.  If  it  hadn't  been  me,  it  would  have 
had  to  be  somebody  else.  So  I  did  what  I  could 
for  them,  and  earned  whatever  money  there  was 
in  it.  That  was  the  only  line  I  was  in  at  first; 
but  there  was  a  time  when  they  didn't  come  fast 
enough  to  make  it  pay,  and  I  thought  of  the  other 
thing.  The  closing  up  of  the  deal  was  always 
done  quietly  and  decently.  There  wasn't  any 
writhing  agony  or  any  dying  looks.  They  just 
took  a  cup  of  tea,  or  glass  of  liquor  that   I 


MY  CONVERT,  OR  HER  VICTIM      261 

brought  them  after  they  were  in  bed  the  night 
before  what  would  have  been  our  wedding  day, 
and  then  the  poor  fool  would  go  to  sleep  and  I 
would  bury  him  alive.  The  only  difference  here 
in  hell  is  that  we  bury  them  alive,  and  they  stay 
alive  after  they  are  buried;  but  they  stay  buried 
just  the  same.  You're  the  first  one  I  ever  told 
beforehand.  You'll  understand  better  when 
you're  in  it." 

These  last  words  were  spoken  in  such  fury 
of  feelingless  determination  that  I  began  to  won- 
der if  I  ought  not  to  make  a  strong  effort  to 
convert  this  woman,  if  only  to  ward  off  serious 
consequences  from  myself.  Yet  the  very  self-in- 
terest involved  gave  my  attempt  a  certain  embar- 
rassment and  stiffness.  "  I  cannot  see  what  you 
gained  by  all  this  strange  and  terrible  course," 
I  said.  "  No  money  you  could  make  by  it  on 
earth  could  possibly  buy  you  one  happy  breath, 
and  there  is  no  money  at  all  to  be  made  in  hell. 
Won't  you  give  it  all  up  now,  and  seek  for  God's 
mercy  upon  your  soul  ?  " 

The  great  woman  regarded  me  with  astonish- 
ment, and  a  visible  trill  of  something  deeper. 
"  What  sort  of  a  crank  are  you  ? "  she  asked. 
"  Nobody  ever  spoke  to  me  like  that  before. 
Where  did  you  come  from  anyway  ?  " 

"  On  earth  I  was  a  Presbyterian,"  I  answered 
meekly.  "  My  citizenship  is  in  heaven.  I  came 
here  looking  for  lost  souls  to  save.     You  poor 


262  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

soul!  if  no  one  ever  took  an  interest  in  you  be- 
fore, I  will  now.  It  is  not  too  late  for  you  to  look 
to  Jesus  Christ  now  and  be  saved." 

"  Would  I  have  the  first  place  in  heaven  ?  " 
the  Satana  asked.  "  Would  I  be  the  only  woman 
admitted  to  the  Freemason's  lodge?  What 
would  they  do  for  me  there  ?  " 

"  If  you  were  truly  saved,"  I  replied,  "  you 
would  not  seek  the  highest  place  in  Heaven;  you 
would  feel  unworthy  of  the  lowest.  You  would 
desire  most  of  all  to  get  back  to  hell  and  try  to 
right  and  atone  for  some  of  the  horrible  wrongs 
your  blind  selfishness  has  wrought." 

"  Then  I  guess  I  don't  care  to  be  saved,"  she 
answered  promptly  and  decidedly. 

"  Your  only  gain  will  be  to  lose,"  I  urged. 
"  You  have  been  gaining  through  your  whole  ex- 
istence until  you  stand,  it  seems,  at  the  highest 
bad  eminence  to  which  a  human  being  could  as- 
pire; yet  all  this  has  only  availed  to  bind  you 
down  to  foul,  ghoulish  drudgeries,  making  you 
hated,  detested,  dreaded,  impossible  to  be  loved 
even  by  Satan  himself." 

"  Nobody  ever  bound  me  down  to  anything," 
she  protested  sullenly.  "  I  always  did  just  to 
suit  myself.  I  had  the  physical  strength  of 
three  ordinary  women.  I  hardly  ever  made  a 
plan  that  I  didn't  carry  out.  I  broke  laws  as 
fast  as  they  got  in  my  way;  yet  I  was  never  ar- 
rested but  once,  and  that  time  I  got  out  on  bail 
and  skipped.     You  see  I'm  not  a  likely  subject 


WHY  DO  RIGHT?  263 

for  conversion.  I  don't  '  surrender  all,'  nor  noth- 
ing. I've  got  my  own  life  to  live,  and  I  propose 
to  go  on  living  it.  I've  outwitted  God  and  man 
for  two  centuries,  and  I  say  damn  your  God! 
damn  your  heaven!  let  me  have  things  my  own 
way  in  hell." 

"  I  admit  that  it  seems  a  difficult  task  to  open 
your  eyes  to  a  higher  self-interest,"  was  my  reply, 
"  but  I  would  like  to  talk  with  you  about  the 
right  and  wrong  of  it.  If  it  was  conceivable  that 
you  could  gain  the  whole  universe,  heaven  in- 
cluded, by  doing  wrong,  still  it  would  be  wrong, 
and  if  you  could  lose  all,  even  heaven,  by  doing 
right,  still  right  would  be  right  and  wrong  would 
be  wrong,  and  that  alone  would  make  the  com- 
pelling difference.  And  even  if  God  himself 
could  go  wrong,  you  could  have  no  alternative, 
for  real  peace  of  mind,  but  to  keep  on  trying  to 
do  right.  For  the  shame  of  one,  and  the  as- 
surance of  the  other;  for  the  very  wrongness  or 
doing  wrong  and  the  Tightness  of  doing  right, 
I  would  counsel  you  to  turn.  Positively  there  is 
no  other  specific  for  that  mean,  low-down  feel- 
ing; and  you  know  you  cannot  endure  it  to  all 
eternity.  You  know  you  cannot  keep  this  sort  of 
thing  up  forever.  You  are  only  making  the 
cycles  of  restitution  harder.  Every  vile,  heartless, 
wicked  action  of  your  existence  will  be  a  cause 
to  you  for  eternal  regret.  Oh  for  Christ's  sake 
come  out  of  it  all  and  live  square !  " 

"You   are  talking   about   something   I   don't 


264  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

know  about,"  Mrs.  Satan  answered.  "  And  I  tell 
you  I  don't  want  to  know.  You  make  me  feel 
strange  and  uncomfortable.  You  throw  things 
up  to  me  that  I  won't  take  from  you,  or  from 
anybody.  I  suppose  this  must  have  been  the  way 
you  were  working  on  my  royal  husband  when  I 
came.  Let  his  majesty  show  the  white  feather, 
if  he  feels  like  it.  Then  I'll  take  charge  here 
myself." 

The  Devil  laughed  long  and  loud.  "  You 
could  not  take  the  charge  of  the  millionth  part 
of  it,"  he  said. 

His  lady  showed  some  pique.  "  You  know  I 
have  been  growing,"  she  protested.  "  Did  I  not 
manage  nearly  eighteen  thousand  temptations  at 
once  by  our  last  count?  " 

"  And  that,"  declared  Satan,  "  was  not  the 
millionth  part." 

"  Leave  me  the  whole  contract  and  I'd  grow 
to  it,"  the  Satana  still  objected. 

"  If  you  will  not  scorn  the  opinion  of  a  third 
party,  though  also  a  mortal  and  to  that  extent 
not  entirely  disinterested,'  I  interposed,  "  feminine 
faculty  naturally  stretches  to  a  multiplicity  of  de- 
tails. For  instance,  our  Presbyterian  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Board  managed  a  matter 
which  the  men  of  the  general  board  gave  up  be- 
cause they  couldn't  stand  it.  They  kept  a  great 
number  of  our  churches,  Sunday  Schools,  and  les- 
ser organizations  in  personal  correspondence  with 
a  great  number  of  our  Mission  stations  around 


A  POSSIBLE  SUBSTITUTE        265 

the  world.  Our  Woman's  Home  board  showed  a 
similar  facility,  through  every  Presbyterial  so- 
ciety, for  keeping  each  little  society  of  each 
church  to  account  for  its  gifts  to  each  of  a  con- 
siderable list  of  special  mission  schools.  Just  for 
the  fun  of  the  thing,  and  entirely  without  pay, 
some  good  women  in  New  York  organized  an  In- 
ternational Sunshine  Society,  and  kept  in  helpful 
correspondence  with  thousands  of  branches  all 
over  the  world.  The  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  organized  its  work  under  more 
than  forty  different  departments,  just  because 
they  enjoyed  doing  it  in  that  way.  This  makes  a 
man's  brain  reel.  I  have  talked  with  women  in  a 
room  full  of  people,  and  found  that  they  could 
answer  pertinently,  and  yet  keep  a  general  idea 
of  what  other  women  were  saying  in  various 
parts  of  the  room." 

"  Nevertheless,  I  got  on  without  this  one  for 
several  ages,"  the  Devil  still  argued  somewhat 
gruffly.  "  I  believe  she  is  just  giving  me  a  dare 
to  repent  in  earnest.  I  have  half  a  mind  to  do  it, 
and  show  her  where  she  would  be  without  my  help. 
Where  would  she  advertise  for  a  husband  to  take 
my  place  I  wonder." 

"  I  would  send  at  once  for  Noble  Grand 
Master  McGammon,"  the  lady  suggested  coquet- 
tishly. 

Of  course  McGammon  appeared.  "  Reverend 
Sir ! "  he  exclaimed  in  astonishment,  on  seeing 
me. 


266  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  He  is  trying  to  convert  Satan,"  laughed  the 
ex-widow.     "  Yes,  and  me  too." 

"  I  supposed,  Sir,  that  you  were  engaged  in 
looking  for  your  brother,"  McGammon  remarked 
reproachfully. 

"  And  my  other  brothers,  I  think  I  told  you," 
was  my  apology. 

"  Also  a  sister  or  two?  "  McGammon  asked  with 
a  slight  inclination  of  soul  toward  the  great  lady 
of  hell,  and  a  tone  almost  too  near  a  snear  to  be 
in  keeping  with  his  accustomed  character. 

"  The  lady  came,"  I  explained,  "  when  I  was 
talking  with  her  husband.  I  have  indeed  been 
trying  to  show  her  the  reason  for  turning  to  God, 
as  I  had  also  been  endeavoring  to  show  it  to  her 
husband." 

"Ah!"  commented  McGammon,  "His  Majes- 
ty then  also  is  one  of  your  brothers !  " 

"  He,  too,  is  God's  child,"  I  argued. 

"  And  I  believe  he  had  him  almost  persuaded  to 
be  a  Christian,'  continued  the  woman. 

"  He  lately  made  certain  appeals  to  me  like- 
wise," McGammon  acknowledged,  "  but  it  was 
soon  over,  and  no  great  harm  done." 

"  He  don't  seem  to  be  satisfied  unless  he  is  try- 
ing to  convert  somebody,"  said  the  scarlet  woman. 

Before  I  could  thank  her  for  this  great  praise, 
McGammon  moderated  my  pleasure  in  it  by  re- 
marking that  he  enjoyed  the  honor  of  the  Rev- 
erend Prester's  acquaintance  on  earth,  and  while 


POOR  SATAN!  267 

he  had  shown  there  a  similar  proneness  to  ill-timed 
persuasion,  no  very  marked  results  in  conversions 
had  been  apparent.  "  They  were  for  the  most 
part  rather  light-weight  characters  who  yielded 
to  it,"  he  stated.  "  I  do  not  myself  apprehend 
any  considerable  upheaval  in  hell  from  the  amia- 
ble propaganda  upon  which  the  reverend  gentle- 
man has  apparently  set  forth." 

But  Satan  himself  spoke  gravely.  "  You  are 
only  mortals  after  all,"  he  said.  "  You  see  hard- 
ly beyond  where  your  noses  once  were.  This 
thing  has  a  power  in  it  that  you  do  not  realize. 
After  one  or  two  vapouring  enthusiasts  of  Pres- 
ter's  stamp,  I  foresee  the  approach  of  a  determined 
invasion  of  our  dominions,  and  trouble  ahead  for 
us  greater  than  that  which  missionaries  and  re- 
formers have  yet  been  able  to  give  us." 

"  Then  why  don't  you  pen  this  one  up  at  once, 
and  be  done  with  him  ?  "  queried  the  Satana. 

"  Hush !  "  exclaimed  Satan.  "  Your  insight  is 
of  no  more  avail  than  your  foresight.  Can  you 
not  see  the  Other  with  him  ?  It  is  the  One  behind 
that  I  am  concerned  about.  I  have  had  to  deal 
with  Him  so  long.  His  visible  presence  here  bodes 
ill." 

"  If  there's  another,  down  with  them  both  to  the 
dungeon !  "  exclaimed  his  spouse  again. 

"  I've  tried  that  before,'  said  the  great  Pro- 
tagonist. "  Once  I  had  that  Other  crucified, 
buried;  stone  at  the  sepulchre;  door  sealed  with 


268  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

the  seal  of  the  governor,  and  a  watch  set.  Of 
what  avail  was  it  all?  That  was  the  very  be- 
ginning of  His  triumph." 

"  But  still  you  did  not  turn  coward,"  McGam- 
mon  whispered,  awed  by  a  partial  understanding 
of  the  situation.     "  Will  you  do  it  now?  " 

"  Not  coward  but  diplomat,"  Satan  answered. 
"  Give  me  time  to  ponder  and  plan.  The  highest 
type  of  courage  is  not  that  which  makes  impetu- 
ous attacks  and  sudden  reprisals ;  but  rather  that 
which  displays  coolness  in  defeat,  yields  what  it 
must,  and  bides  its  time." 

"Who's  talking  about  defeat?"  the  Satana 
asked.  "  I  think  the  time  to  head  off  these  im- 
pertinent intrusions  is  at  the  start.  Make  a  ter- 
rible example  of  the  first  one,  before  the  thing 
gets  too  common." 

"  The  hardest  lesson  I  have  had  to  learn 
through  the  advancing  ages,"  was  Satan's  re- 
joinder, "  has  been  the  lesson  of  toleration.  At 
first  I  was  all  for  gibbets,  crosses,  the  stake,  the 
torch,  the  rack,  the  headsman.  It  took  me  long 
to  learn  that  the  cause  I  hated  gained  power  from 
being  persecuted.  Then  having  been  long  taught, 
I  conceived  the  plan  of  staying  the  spread  of  un- 
welcome ideas  by  toleration.  I  taught  men  not 
to  oppose,  not  to  inquire,  not  to  discuss:  to  re- 
gard all  cults  with  unconcern,  to  assent  from 
the  lips  outward,  to  hold  themselves  aloof  from 
positive  conviction,  to  leave  vital  religion  on  one 
side  and  flock  to  any  ceremonious  make-believe,  to 


SATAN'S  IMPROVED  MANUAL      269 

smother  strong  doctrine  under  a  conspiracy  of 
silence  and  to  chill  enthusiasm  by  the  use  of  a 
damp  blanket  of  mild  surprise.  I  find  this  policy 
works  more  effectively  than  that  of  faggots  and 
bullets.  So  if  I  can  keep  hell  not  hostile  but 
calmly  indifferent  to  the  hopes  of  Christianity, 
and  if  I  can  only  make  such  fellows  as  this  one 
appear  tiresome  and  extreme ;  if  I  can  avoid  mak- 
ing him  interesting  by  any  ostensible  persecution, 
but  just  watch  a  chance  to  befool  him,  trip  him, 
separate  him  from  his  companion,  I  may,  perhaps, 
e'er  long  have  him  stumbling  into  the  limbus  of 
used-up  souls." 

"  I  already  have  him  incarcerated  after  a  man- 
ner," volunteered  McGammon.  "  He  cannot  get 
out  of  the  Lodge  area." 

"  But  have  you  considered  the  harm  he  may 
do  inside  ?  "  asked  the  Adversary. 

"  How  tired  you  must  get,"  the  woman  ex- 
claimed, "  guarding  against  every  checkmate,  and 
playing  such  a  slow  game ! " 

"  I  do  indeed,"  Satan  acknowledged  somewhat 
wearily.  "  Sometimes  I  feel  disposed  to  let  my 
men  go,  and  yield  the  board." 

"  If  you  do,"  threatened  the  lady,  "  the  Noble 
Grand  and  I  have  warned  you  what  will  happen." 

"  How  preciously  detestable  you  both  are !  " 
exclaimed  Satan,  "  and  yet  you  and  McGammon 
are  equally  necessary  to  me ! " 

Like  other  people  of  assured  station,  accus- 
tomed to  conversing  freely  before  inferiors,  they 


270  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

had  not  seemed  to  be  caring  if  I  overheard  their 
conversation;  but  at  this  point  the  Satana,  be- 
coming aware  of  my  close  attention,  turned  upon 
me  in  vexation.  "  You  sneaking,  snivelling,  in- 
terloping Salvationist !  "  she  cried.  "  My  Lord 
may  dilly  dally  with  your  case  awhile  if  he  must, 
but  sooner  or  later  you  are  my  prey.  A  meagre 
quarry  you  will  be,  after  all  the  full  blooded  men 
I  have  kissed  to  sleep ;  but  such  as  you  are,  I  will 
trap  you  yet,  and  when  I  bury  you,  I  will  bury 
you  deep." 

As  she  spoke,  I  saw  clearly  a  blemish  I  had  be- 
gun to  notice  before  upon  the  smooth  skin  of  her 
soul.  It  was  a  double  row  of  eight  little  callosi- 
ties, four  in  a  row,  opposite  each  other  in  pairs, 
such  as  would  be  left  upon  the  finger  bases  and 
upper  palm  of  a  human  hand  by  the  diligent  use 
of  a  spade. 

Then  I  recalled  an  annual  saying  of  Doctor 
Hitchcock  in  the  church  history  class  a  pro-pos 
of  Catherine  de  Medici.  "  If  you  wish  a  devil," 
he  would  say,  "  look  for  a  she-devil." 


DISOWNED  BY  BOTH  WORLDS      271 


CHAPTER  XV 

"  Reverend  Sir,"  advised  the  Noble  Grand 
Master  McGammon  somewhat  dryly,  "  it  seems 
that  this  would  be  a  fitting  time  for  you  to  con- 
tinue the  search  for  your  brother." 

"  Surely  His  Majesty  can  tell  me  at  once  where 
my  brother  is  at  this  time,"  I  objected. 

"What  is  your  brother's  name?"  inquired  the 
Ruler  of  Darkness. 

"  Harry,"  I  replied. 

"  Harry  Prester,"  mused  Satan :  "  that  is 
strange  now.  I  cannot  recall  or  observe  him 
among  all  my  subjects.  By  the  way,  not  mean- 
ing to  compliment  you  overmuch,  do  you  know 
I  find  strangely  few  by  the  name  of  Prester  in- 
habiting my  dominions." 

"  They  have  all  been  children  of  the  covenant," 
I  explained,  "  brought  up  on  the  Bible  and  Short- 
er Catechism,  family  prayer  and  consistent  Pu- 
ritan living." 

"  Are  you  sure,  then,  that  your  brother  is  in 
hell?  "  the  Adversary  asked  again. 

"  I  only  know  that  he  has  not  yet  turned  up  in 
heaven,"  I  answered.  "  And  if  he  is  neither  in 
the  upper  world,  nor  yet  in  the  nether  world,  then 
where  in  the  world  is  he  ?  " 

"  Dante  would  say,"  suggested  Satan,  "  that 
you  might  find  him  in  the  limbus  of  souls  without 
color." 


9Ti%  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  But  is  there  really  such  a  place  ?  "  I  queried. 

"  You  will  have  to  search  and  find  out,"  re- 
plied the  Father  of  Pharisees  suavely.  "  I  can 
only  suggest  that  your  Master  says  of  a  certain 
class,  4  Because  you  are  neither  cold  nor  hot,  I 
will  spew  you  out  of  my  mouth.'  And  if  He 
doesn't  want  them  in  heaven,  I  am  sure  I  do  not 
care  much  for  them  in  hell.  These  negative  souls 
were  immensely  useful  to  me  on  earth,  but  they  are 
hardly  worth  their  brimstone  here." 

"  Nevertheless  I  would  suggest  to  the  Reverend 
Prester,"  McGammon  interposed,  "  that  he  start 
on  his  search  at  once.  We  have  men  in  our  va- 
rious orders  who  are  not  so  bad  as  the  worst,  nor 
yet  so  good  as  the  best.  His  Majesty  might 
easily  overlook  one  of  them  for  lack  of  anything 
in  him  of  which  to  take  notice,  and  for  the  honor 
of  the  ancient  Prester  name,  if  this  one  isn't  in 
hell  at  all,  his  absence  ought  to  be  ascertained.  I 
feel  that  this  matter  is  important." 

"  I  do  wish  to  find  Harry,"  I  confessed,  ignor- 
ing the  taunt,  but  hitherto  I  have  had  no  clue. 
I  have  simply  gone  from  one  whom  I  met  to  the 
next,  as  in  the  game  of  puss-wants-a-corner,  and 
each  one  encountered  has  been  so  interesting  for 
his  own  need  of  someone  to  look  him  up,  that  I 
have  made  slow  progress." 

"  I  will  give  you  a  guide,"  the  Noble  Grand 
offered  graciously.  "  I  might  go  with  you  my- 
self, only  a  pressure  of  many  matters  prevents." 

I  thanked  him  for  this  courtesy,  and  only  asked 


A  SINISTER  ARRANGEMENT     273 

time  to  conclude  my  interview  with  the  five  men 
who  had  urged  me  to  talk  with  Satan.  I  began 
to  suspect  that  this  was  what  McGammon  did  not 
wish  me  to  do.  Even  in  his  presence,  and  in  that 
brooding  at-hand-ness  of  Satan,  never  entirely 
removed  and  more  consciously  apprehended  than 
before,  I  found  in  these  men's  souls  an  attitude  of 
concern  which  caused  hope  to  leap  strong  within 
me.  I  saw  the  inner  Wilkinson  peeping  out  with 
an  eagerness  which  almost  forgot  concealment, 
while  Galpin  and  Godson  received  me  gravely  and 
earnestly,  and  poor  Charlie  Lovejoy  clung  to  me 
almost  piteously,  pleading  "  Don't  leave  me,  old 
faithful  friend;  if  you  must  go  anywhere,  take 
me  with  you." 

But  McGammon  was  obdurate.  "  Pardon  me 
if  I  suggest  that  I  am  master  here,"  he  said.  "  I 
have  given  you  free  leave  to  see  many  things. 
You  will  go  alone  with  the  guide  I  am  calling." 

I  could  only  draw  Lovejoy  to  me  and  whisper 
to  him  to  tell  the  others  that  I  would  remain  in 
part  with  them,  and  take  up  our  talk  when  it 
could  be  unreserved.  While  speaking  with  Charley 
a  strange  soul-odor  differentiated  itself  from 
hell's  general  mixture,  and  came  more  and  more 
strongly  upon  me,  with  an  unaccountable  asso- 
ciation of  former  days  strangely  sickening  to  my 
heart.  I  turned  to  become  acquainted  with  my 
appointed  guide. 

It  was  Rorer. 

McGammon  noticed  my  start  of  discomfort  and 


274  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

remarked  with  some  show  of  surprise,  "  I  perceive 
that  you  have  had  some  previous  acquaintance 
with  each  other." 

"  The  last  time  we  met,"  I  replied,  "  this  man 
had  it  in  his  mind  to  kill  me." 

"  What  makes  you  think  such  a  thing  as  that, 
Reverend?  "  Rorer  asked. 

"  The  threatening  language  you  used  as  you 
strode  toward  me,"  I  replied.  "  The  reach  for 
your  revolver,  whose  handle  was  uncovered  as 
your  wrist  pushed  back  your  coat,  the  menacing 
letters  which  had  come  to  me  in  the  handwriting  of 
your  lady  sympathizer,  the  reputation  you  bore, 
the  opportunity  of  the  time  and  place,  and  the 
indications  that  you  had  been  waiting  for  me  to 
pass." 

"  Then  why  didn't  I  go  ahead  and  do  it  ?  " 
Rorer  demanded. 

"  Because  I  turned  my  back,  as  Jeanie  had 
advised  me,"  I  answered.  "  When  you  replied 
to  my  civil  greeting  as  you  did ;  I  turned  and  led 
my  horse  into  William's  lane  gate.  If  I  had 
faced  you  a  moment  longer  on  that  solitary  piece 
of  Mount  Latitude  road,  I  believe  you  would  have 
seized  your  last  opportunity  for  revenge;  and 
then  laid  the  blame  upon  me.  When  I  turned 
my  back  you  didn't  dare  to  shoot  me;  knowing 
that  the  whole  community  was  expecting  you  to 
do  it.  The  very  fear  which  my  mare  showed  of 
you  confirmed  the  moral  certainty  that  it  was  you 


THE  SCENT  OF  A  SOUL  275 

who  fired  the  two  shots  at  me  that  dark  Sunday 
night  five  months  before,  lodging  the  thirty-three 
caliber  bullet  into  the  back  of  my  runabout  seat. 
For  Trolley  had  the  scent  of  a  dog,  and  showed 
a  mortal  terror  at  the  report  of  a  gun." 

"  Now  Reverend,"  Rorer  complained,  "  you 
wouldn't  condemn  a  man  on  the  queer  actions  of  a 
horse?  " 

"  May  God  forgive  me  if  I  wrong  3'ou,  Elder," 
I  answered ;  "  but  Trolley  snorted  as  we  passed 
you  that  dark  night,  and  she  gave  the  same  snort, 
only  more  anxiously,  as  we  passed  the  barn  out  of 
which  you  came  that  last  Sunday  afternoon. 
She  wanted  to  run,  and  it  was  hard  for  me  to  turn 
her  in  to  Elder  Billy's  gate.  After  opening  the 
gate,  I  held  her  head  with  difficulty  as  you  ap- 
proached. And  I  hope  you  will  try  and  bear 
with  me  as  I  tell  you  that  your  soul  has  a  scent 
as  perceptible  and  as  alarming  to  mine,  as  the 
physical  scent  was  only  to  my  beast.  I  knew 
you  by  it  now,  after  a  separation  of  more  than 
a  century,  and  before  we  interchanged  a 
thought." 

Much  of  Rorer's  overmastering  influence  in 
Mount  Latitude  had  come,  I  often  thought,  from 
his  facility  in  displaying  either  an  imposing  rage 
or  an  imperturbable  dignity,  and  you  never  knew 
which  it  would  be.  At  this  grievous  provocation, 
he  chose  to  ignore  my  rudeness  and  replied  calm- 
ly that  he  was  there  to  serve  me,  and  to  do  the 


276  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

bidding  of  the  Noble  Grand.  "  Let  us  set  out 
upon  our  enterprise,"  he  said,  "  without  spending 
further  controversy  upon  bygones." 

I  turned  to  McGammon,  "  Noble  Grand  Mas- 
ter," I  said,  "  I  fear  this  man.  "  He  is  the  only 
one  I  was  ever  afraid  of  in  this  way.  My  life  was 
threatened  once  by  a  representative  of  your  line 
of  business  during  an  anti-saloon  campaign,  and 
it  caused  me  little  anxiety;  but  this  man  really 
meant  to  kill  me.  He  has  a  grudge  against  me. 
I  object  to  him  as  a  guide.  Will  you  send  me 
off  alone  in  hell  with  a  man  who  cherishes  an  un- 
reasoning murderous  purpose  to  do  me  harm." 

"  Reverend  Sir,"  McGammon  replied,  "  you 
came  in  here  by  your  own  desire,  expressing  the 
intention  of  looking  for  your  brother.  As  I 
yielded  to  your  solicitation  in  the  first  place;  so 
now  I  am  doing  all  in  my  power  to  facilitate  your 
purpose.  My  time  is  very  much  taken  up,  and 
just  now  I  have  an  urgent  call  to  visit  several 
subordinate  lodges.  I  have  no  time  to  bring  a 
succesion  of  guides  for  your  selection.  If  your 
nerve  is  weakening,  you  may  go  in  the  anti- 
chamber  for  a  hundred  years.  There  is  no 
second  alternative.  You  understood  when  you 
came  in  that  there  was  no  exit." 

I  turned  away  from  them  both  to  talk  with  the 
Master.  "  Thou  knowest  Lord,"  I  said,  "  that  I 
have  never  willingly  injured  Rorer.  He  freely 
joined  with  the  other  elders  of  Mount  Latitude 
church  in  asking  for  the  Presbytery's  commission 


HELL'S  SINGLE  RISK  277 

to  investigate  things.  I  had  no  part  in  their 
deposing  him  from  his  eldership.  When  Rorer 
tried  to  kill  his  son-in-law  with  a  poker,  we  gave 
him  a  chance  to  appear  on  trial  before  the  session 
before  we  suspended  him.  I  never  gave  him  a 
hard  word.  I  carried  no  weapon  to  defend  my 
life  from  his  threatened  attack.  Do  not  give  me 
over  into  his  hand  now.  Thou  has  been  my  help ; 
leave  me  not,  neither  forsake  me,  oh  God  of  my 
salvation !  " 

"  Fear  him  not,"  was  the  Master's  answer, 
"  there  is  no  fiend  in  hell  that  can  really  harm 
you,  except  by  leading  you  into  sin.  Go  with 
him ;  do  him  all  the  good  you  can.  But  watch 
and  pray  that  you  may  not  enter  into  tempta- 
tion." 

It  would  be  tedious  to  tell  of  all  the  orders  and 
lodges  we  visited.  Much  as  I  had  liked  many  of 
their  individual  members  and  approved  of  the 
general  principle  of  human  brotherhood  and 
appreciated  the  value  of  their  cooperative  insur- 
ance, and  realized  the  boyish  imperative  upon  men 
of  getting  together  for  a  good  time;  interesting 
myself  in  these  lodges  proved  sometimes  a  rather 
wearisome  part  of  my  pastoral  work ;  always  ex- 
cepting that  of  the  Good  Templars,  where  I  could 
go  with  my  wife,  sleep  through  the  ritual,  and  en- 
joy a  rousing  little  temperance  meeting  during  the 
time  allotted  for  the  "  good  of  the  Order."  I 
missed  Jeanie  sadly  now,  and  the  motive  of  my 
search  seemed  so  uncertain   of  realization.     My 


278  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

progress  through  the  orders  of  Freemasons, 
Knights  of  Pythias,  Red  Men,  Elks,  Eagles,  Pa- 
triotic Order  of  the  Sons  of  America,  United 
Workmen,  Junior  Mechanics,  Sons  of  St.  George, 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Girdle,  the  Royal  Arcanum, 
Knights  of  Columbus,  the  American  Protective 
Association,  and,  oh  dear  me!  how  many  others 
with  whom  I  had  already  some  acquaintance, 
would  have  been  but  little  better  than  a  ten  weeks' 
yawn ;  except  for  my  interest  in  individual  lodge- 
members,  too  many  of  whom,  alas!  I  had  known 
on  earth.  I  began  to  suspect  that  the  dignified 
and  patient  thoroughness  with  which  Rorer 
assisted  my  search  was  helped  by  his  complacency 
in  seeeing  me  do  penance.  "  This  seemed  at 
times  the  part  of  my  pastoral  work  on  earth  most 
worthy  of  that  somewhat  sardonic  name,"  I 
acknowledged  to  him ;  "  doing  deference  to  these 
sublimely  important  organizations;  and  I  had 
cherished  the  hope  that  when  I  got  into  eternity 
I  might  have  a  rest  from  them;  but  now  it  seems 
as  though  the  greater  part  of  hell's  population 
had  joined  one  or  the  other  of  them  —  only  these 
orders  themselves  are  many  of  them  quite  trans- 
formed, and  diverted  in  effect  from  the  very  excel- 
lent motive  each  put  forward  on  earth." 

"  You  see  Reverend,"  Rorer  replied :  "  so  many 
men  are  in  hell  without  their  wives,  and  they  have 
so  much  time  on  their  hands." 

"  But  that  doesn't  explain  why  you  joined," 
I   objected;   "for  you   wouldn't   live  with   your 


DENOUNCE  TO  SAVE  279 

wife    in    Mount    Latitude,    and   the   other    lady 
may,  possibly,  he  here." 

"  The  other  one  became  converted  over  again, 
and  never  spoke  to  me  for  twenty  years  before  she 
died,"  Rorer  acknowledged  gloomily.  "  I  think 
the  trouble  began  that  night  in  the  revival  meet- 
ing when  she  sat  with  a  row  of  her  friends  con- 
versing together  across  the  middle  of  the  congre- 
gation, so  that  no  one  felt  disposed  to  come 
forward,  and  finally  you  pointed  your  finger 
directly  at  her,  and  told  her  if  she  was  disposed 
to  go  to  hell  herself,  at  least  not  to  try  to  take 
others  with  her.  That  thing  made  her  angry 
for  ten  years  and  gloomy  for  ten  more.  Then 
she  went  forward,  one  night,  to  the  mourners' 
bench  in  the  Methodist  church  at  Lime  Ridge, 
and  got  religion  strong." 

"  Praise  God ! "  I  cried,  "  and  now  Elder,  why 
don't  you  follow  her  example  ?  " 

"  I  did,"  he  confessed,  "  but  it  didn't  work ; 
she  never  had  anything  more  to  do  with  me,  and 
religion  didn't  stick  to  me  any  more  than  it  did 
the  other  times." 

"  Perhaps  you  hadn't  the  right  motive,"  I  sug- 
gested. "  Perhaps  you  were  trusting  in  religion, 
rather  than  in  Christ." 

"  A  man  requires  appreciation  and  friendship. 
I  took  hold  strong  to  exhort  and  pray;  but  the 
brethren  and  sisters  witheld  their  confidence  and 
their  affection  from  me;  and  at  last,  I  took  to 
drink,  to  drown  my  sorrows." 


280  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

M  What  a  miserable  old  age  you  must  have 
experienced !  "  I  said  compassionately. 

"  It  ended  in  the  poor-house,"  Rorer  admitted. 

"  You  must  have  been  glad  to  breathe  your 
last  and  have  it  all  over,"  I  reflected. 

"  For  all  that,  I  would  give  my  eldership  in  hell 
just  to  be  back  at  the  Stone  Bridge  poor-house," 
he  declared,  "  much  more  to  begin  life  all  over  at 
Mount  Latitude." 

"  I  heard  something  of  your  eldership  here,"  I 
acknowledged,  "  and  I  rather  anticipated  it  be- 
fore." 

"  I  have  been  for  years  an  elder  in  the  Metro- 
politan Church  of  Millionaires'  Corner,"  Rorer 
informed  me  sententiously. 

"  That  seems  strange,"  I  mused,  "  if  you  died 
in  the  poor-house." 

"  Their  wealth  is  only  a  memory,"  Rorer  de- 
clared. "  I  could  buy  up  the  whole  crowd  for 
twenty -five  cents.  And  I'm  not  the  only  one 
among  them  that  came  to  the  poor-house  at  last." 

"  Still  the  change  of  circumstances  was  not  so 
great  for  you,"  I  suggested.  "  You  seemed  to 
have  no  particular  means  of  livelihood  when  I 
knew  you,  except  your  untoward  hypnotism  over 
one  well-to-do  family  and  its  connections." 

"  I  believe  I  have  been  distinguished  in  the 
Metropolitan  church,"  Rorer  declared ;  "  because 
I  am  the  only  one  among  them  that  never  lost 
money.  Perhaps  they  enjoy  having  one  of  their 
number  different  for  variety." 


STILL  AN  OFFICE-BEARER       281 

"  And  are  you  as  faithful  a  church  goer  as  in 
the  old  days  at  Mount  Latitude,"  I  asked. 

"  I  never  miss,"  was  his  answer. 

This  at  once  accounted  to  my  mind  for  occa- 
sional seasons  of  abstraction  when  Rorer  did  not 
seem  to  be  all  of  him  with  me  in  the  lodge  rooms. 
He  was  ever  an  inscrutable  man ;  only  to  be  per- 
ceived in  part  upon  the  surface ;  but  since  meeting 
him  in  hell,  I  had  been  impressed  that  he  must  be 
engaged  upon  some  other,  if  kindred,  enterprise 
simultaneously  with  that  of  conducting  me.  I 
did  not  fail  to  thank  him  for  his  disinterestedness 
in  remaining,  even  in  part,  by  my  side,  having 
other  and  distant  matters  to  attend  to.  "  And 
now  Elder,"  I  continued,  "  you  must  still  have  a 
form  of  godliness  to  occupy  the  exalted  church 
position  which  is  yours.  This  certainly  seems 
in  some  respects  a  great  advance  from  the  elder- 
ship of  our  little  Mount  Latitude  Church.  And 
will  you  any  longer  deny  the  powvr  of  godliness? 
Will  you  not  yield  your  heart  entirely  to  the 
Christ  of  whom  you  could  talk  quite  interestingly 
in  former  days  ?  " 

"  It  is  entirely  suitable  for  you  to  address  me 
in  this  manner,  Reverend,"  was  Rorer's  calm 
reply,  "  but  you  know  that  at  heart,  I  am  a  con- 
sistent believer  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Millenial 
Dawn." 

"  I  remember  that  this  was  one  of  the  indict- 
ments against  you  as  a  Presbyterian  elder  at 
Mount  Latitude,  I  answered.     "  And  if  you  still 


282  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

hold  these  views,  I  am  interested  to  know  how 
the  Metropolitan  Presbyterian  Church  of  Mil- 
lionaires' Corner,  and  your  ecclesiastical  peers  in 
the  Presbytery  take  your  belief  now.  How  do 
you  square  your  belief  with  the  teaching  of  the 
Shorter  and  longer  Catechisms  and  with  that  of 
the  Confession  of  Faith?  " 

"  Those  symbols  contain  my  official  belief," 
Rorer  answered.  "  My  private  belief  is  in  the 
Millenial  Dawn." 

"  But  how  does  your  Presbytery  like  a  man 
that  has  two  sets  of  beliefs  ?  "  I  asked.  "  And 
what  do  your  ex-millionaire  brothers  think  of 
your  special  private  belief  in  the  Millenial 
Dawn?" 

"  I  might  ask  in  return,  what  does  your  celes- 
tial presbytery  think  of  your  own  special  private 
belief  that  offers  salvation  to  persons  after  they 
have  died?"  Rorer  rejoinded. 

"  The  difference  is,"  I  replied,  "  that  your 
belief,  if  I  have  a  correct  impression  of  it,  antag- 
onizes the  fundamental  principles  of  Calvinism, 
of  evangelical  Christianity  and  of  common 
morality,  while  my  belief  in  an  aeonian  redemp- 
tion seems  to  complete  and  confirm  them.  I  trust 
to  remain  in  perfect  accord  with  our  presbyteries 
in  heaven;  as  well  as  with  our  general  assembly 
and  church  of  the  First  Born." 

"  Damn  your  Calvinism ! "  exclaimed  Rorer 
with    sudden    heat ;    "  Damn    your    evangelical 


WAITING  FOR  THE  DAWN       283 

Christianity!  Damn  your  morality!  I  am 
looking  forward  to  the  Millenial  Dawn." 

"And  how  does  that  expectation  help  you?" 
I  inquired  curiously. 

"  Help  me?  "  he  exclaimed,  "  why  I  would  go 
crazy  without  it.  When  the  Millenial  dawn 
comes  we  shall  all  be  changed.  We  will  be  good 
and  happy  in  a  minute;  or  else  some  of  us  will 
stop  being. 

"  Which  would  you  rather?  "  I  wondered. 

"  I  don't  much  care,"  was  his  answer. 

"  Have  you  no  incentive  at  all  to  live?  "  I  cried. 
"  Do  you  not  often  long  to  be  all  that  God 
would  have  you  ?  " 

"  I  am  that  now,  and  always  have  been,"  was 
his  answer. 

"  What !  "  I  said,  "has  God  ever  wished  you  to 
be  a  wife-deserter,  a  despoiler,  a  murderer  by 
frequent  intention,  if  not  in  fact,  a  consummate 
scoundrel  and  hypocrite,  a  — " 

"  I  have  been  what  God  made  me  to  be,"  he 
replied,  "  and  what  I  am  and  have  been  I  am 
bound  to  be  until  the  Millenium  dawns.  Then  I 
shall  be  changed  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye,  when  the  last  trump  sounds. 

"  Rorer !  "  I  pleaded,  "  for  Christ's  sake  who 
died  to  save  you,  for  pity's  sake  upon  your  own 
soul,  drop  this  awful  stuff  you  have  been  think- 
ing! The  Millenial  dawn  will  come  for  you  the 
moment  you  cry  to  God  for  pardon.     You  do 


284  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

not  need  to  go  on  for  ages  as  you  have  begun. 
Now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  sal- 
vation.    Turn !  turn !  for  why  will  you  die  ?  " 

"  Reverend,"  Rorer  answered,  "  you  don't 
know  me.  You  do  not  understand  my  complex 
nature.  You  never  could,  perhaps  you  never 
will.  But  before  you  are  done  with  me  sir,  I 
calculate  I'll  give  you  something  to  think  about 
a  long  while." 

With  this  veiled  threat,  he  closed  our  personal 
religious  conversation,  and  we  proceeded  on  our 
tour  of  the  lodges. 

As  I  said,  my  spirit  was  saddened  by  the  recog- 
nition of  old  acquaintances.  I  found  Windsor 
Lodge  of  Mill  I^iver,  Sons  of  St.  George  still 
holding  its  sessions  in  Fourth  Degree  on  Sunday 
morning  at  ten  o'clock;  though  without  accom- 
panying potations  from  the  beer  keg,  also  still 
holding  its  monthly  hop,  only  without  its  whiskey 
to  mix  with  coffee  for  the  women;  but  when  we 
had  passed  quite  through  these  all-too-familiar  as- 
sociations of  Sons  of  This  and  Knights  of  the 
Other;  we  began  to  enter  into  a  zone  of  organi- 
zations which  really  seemed  to  exist  for  some 
thing,  while  many  of  them  possessed  the  charm  of 
novelty  also.  My  companion  introduced  me  to  a 
circle  of  Socialists;  and  I  had  to  rub  my  eyes 
metaphorically  and  exclaim  to  myself,  "  Is  this 
hell?  "  Like  the  early  Christians  they  were  hav- 
ing all  things  in  common ;  only  these  were  limited 
necessarily  to  things  of  the  spirit.     It  was  won- 


HELL'S  BEST  CIRCLE  285 

derful  to  see  how  they  had  mitigated  the  tedium 
and  chill  of  hell  by  their  sedulous  care  in  sharing 
every  gleam  of  comfort,  every  vibration  of  heart 
warmth,  in  the  endeavor  to  make  a  little  glow  of 
gladness  spread  and  radiate  over  a  large  area  of 
shivering,  clinging  life.  In  their  midst  I  found 
relief  from  that  rub  of  passing  spirits,  each  bent 
on  its  own  behoof,  which  had  been  my  first  intima- 
tion of  the  environment  of  hell.  As  I  moved 
about  among  them,  each  one  touched  would  go  a 
little  way  with  me  in  deference  and  interest.  I 
found  relief  here  also  from  the  sameness  of 
masculinity;  for  men  and  women  spirits  here 
mingled  frankly,  trustingly  together,  and  told 
each  other  their  inner  thoughts.  It  was  a  wom- 
an spirit  calling  herself  Anna  Palvlovna  who 
showed  me  perhaps  the  greatest  consideration  of 
them  all,  and  patiently  endeavored  to  explain  the 
difference  between  themselves  and  us  who  are 
members  of  Christ's  one  eternal  church;  and  in 
return  I  gave  her  some  account  of  myself,  and 
told  her  about  Jeanie  and  Joy.  She  manifested 
a  certain  repulsion  for  Rorer,  and  he  consider- 
ately left  us  to  ourselves  for  awhile.  "  I  cannot 
understand  why  I  should  find  you  and  your  circle 
here,"  I  said.  "  He  that  loveth  is  born  of  God. 
You  seem  so  out  of  place.  Why  do  you  not 
have  your  part  with  God's  other  dear  children? 
You  are  a  greater  puzzle  to  me  than  all  the  other 
bewildering  anomalies  I  have  found  in  hell." 

"  Brother,"  she  answered  with  engaging  sim- 


286  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

plicity,  "  not  many  of  us  socialists  here  believe  in 
God,  or  in  heaven,  or  in  hell.  We  worship  the 
great  but  imperfect  God,  humanity.  To  us  that 
other  conception  of  God  seems  to  set  the  trend 
toward  tyranny.  How  can  you  be  a  free  man, 
while  you  tremble  at  the  idea  of  a  supreme  being 
whose  arbitrary  will  controls  your  destiny  for 
eternity?  How  can  you  be  untrammelled  and 
heart  free;  to  devote  yourself  to  the  welfare  of 
your  fellow  men?  Religion  is  the  supreme  sel- 
fishness. We  cultivate  a  life  that  is  above  these 
narrow  aims  and  interests  —  broader,  sweeter 
gladder.  Our  heaven  is  not  the  goal  of  a  sancti- 
fied individualism;  but  it  is  the  realization  of  the 
supreme  well-being  of  all,  the  dream  of  a  golden 
future  when  socialism  shall  become  as  universal  in 
the  polity  of  this  spirit  world  as  it  has  already 
become  on  our  dear  old  earth." 

"  You  seem  to  have  failed  to  notice  one  thing, 
Sister,"  I  objected;  "A  varied,  voluntary,  free- 
souled  kind  of  socialism  has  come  to  prevail  on 
earth  along  with  the  esential  triumph  of  Christi- 
anity, and  because  of  it.  It  is  all  the  work  of 
Jesus  the  Nazarene." 

A  smile,  half  of  admiration,  half  of  pity,  shim- 
mered over  the  bright  surface  of  Anna's   soul. 

"  It  is  so  perfectly  natural  that  you  should  feel 
thus,  Brother  Nathaniel,"  she  acknowledged. 
"  All  the  thoughts  of  all  your  forefathers  direct 
your  own  thoughts  in  this  channel.  Because  the 
two  causes  have  grown  and  prevailed  on   earth 


ITS  HIGHEST  THEME  287 

together;  it  was  inevitable  that  minds  of  your 
trend  would  attribute,  the  spread  of  practical 
socialism  to  the  prevailing  power  of  Christianity ; 
while  it  is  entirely  evident  to  minds  that  think 
without  the  aid  of  hereditary  counters;  that 
Christianity  has  survived  at  all  only  by  its  acci- 
dental similarity  to  socialism  and  its  skillful,  if 
tardy,  appropriation  of  socialist  ideas.  Ever 
since  the  crusades  and  the  renaissance,  the  religion 
of  Jesus  has  availed  itself  of  the  fortuitous 
advantage  of  association  with  the  rising  tide  of 
humanism  which  we  call  the  modern  era.  The 
successive  triumphs  of  this  humanistic  principle 
have  been  naively  vaunted  as  triumphs  of  the 
cross.  And  socialism,  holding  the  future  in  its 
heart,  has  not  delayed  from  point  to  point  of  its 
onward  sweep  to  contend  about  issues  already 
past.  Its  outlook  has  been  broad  enough  to 
allow  some  lesser  thougts  of  narrower  minds  to  go 
unchallenged ;  until  from  the  roaring  loom  of  time 
the  pattern  of  man's  destiny  shall  be  unfolded  in 
its  completeness,  and  truth  stand  out  too  clear  for 
argument." 

u  But  Sister  Anna,"  I  protested  in  delight  at 
finding  a  womanly  mind  ready  for  high  themes, 
"  how  can  you  overcome  the  argument  from  priori- 
ty and  from  overmastering  influence  which  gives 
our  Jesus  all  the  glory?  Is  He  not  the  world's 
first  and  greatest  socialist,  and  humanity's  truest 
brother?  Does  not  His  magna  charta  of  equal 
Christian  brotherhood  give  the  complete  ideal  o£ 


288  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

all  that  is  excellent  in  modern  terrestrial  life? 
And  is  not  His  own  completed  law,  'Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  being  written  to- 
day across  the  statute  books  of  earth's  nations, 
across  the  ledgers  of  her  commerce,  across  the 
contracts  of  her  industrial  life?  What  other 
possible  foundation  principle  is  there  for  human 
brotherhood,  but  in  the  sonship  of  believers  born 
again  in  Christ  Jesus  into  the  household  of  faith, 
the  family  of  God?  The  true  brotherhood  of 
man,  lost  in  the  fall,  is  restored  in  forgiveness 
through  Christ,  accompanied  by  the  spirit  of 
adoption  breathed  into  our  hearts  whereby  we 
cry  Abba  Father." 

"  Your  thoughts  are  earnest,  Nathaniel,"  the 
woman  admitted,  "but  oh!  so  amusingly  child- 
like! Really  you  must  admit  that  humanity,  is 
one.  All  men  are  our  brothers.  There  has 
never  been  any  fall.  The  idea  is  so  effete  that  I 
wonder  at  you  for  even  referring  to  it.  Man,  as 
we  have  him  to-day,  is  the  product  of  continuous 
evolution.  Every  fall,  even  as  Theodore  Parker 
claimed,  has  been  a  fall  upward.  The  process  of 
development  has  been  accelerated  in  certain  races 
and  individuals.  So  men  here  and  there  have 
stood  out  in  advance  of  their  age.  The  difference 
has  cost  these  men  martyrdom ;  but  thus  they  have 
lit  the  beacon  fires  of  progress,  to  light  the  path- 
way of  advance  for  succeeding  generations.  Oh 
yes,  we  love  Jesus,  as  we  love  Plato,  Bellamy, 
Henry  George,  and  Carl  Marx  —  perhaps  even 


THE  GREAT  SOCIALIST  289 

more  than  any  of  these;  I  have  often  wished  to 
meet  him,  but  he  has  never  happened  along  in  the 
spirit  world.  He  was  perhaps  the  most  brotherly 
man  that  ever  lived.  But  Jesus  could  have  hard- 
ly claimed  for  himself  all  the  divinity  and  saving 
power  which  your  scriptures  and  your  theologians 
ascribe  to  him.  These  ideas  are  Pauline,  Johan- 
ine.  They  scarcely  occur  in  the  earlier  gospels. 
They  were  part  of  the  halo  of  exaggerated  grati- 
tude shed  upon  the  memory  of  a  great,  kind  soul 
which  suffered  deeply  for  its  fellows.  Jesus  him- 
self must  be  troubled  about  it,  as  we  are  sure  the 
soul  of  his  mother  was  troubled  by  the  mistaken 
idolatry  so  long  accorded  her." 

"  Dear  woman ! "  I  replied,  "an  analogy  is  not 
an  argument.  If  Christ  had  not  in  life  and  deed 
have  proved  Himself  so  unmistakably  divine;  no 
one  would  ever  have  thought  of  paying  quasi 
divine  homage  to  His  mother.  The  world's  history 
and  the  experience  of  many  millions  prove  Him  to 
be  God  our  Saviour.  The  miracle  of  redemption, 
while  it  dwarfs  all  those  of  which  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  tell  us,  even  that  of  his  resurrection, 
compels  our  belief  in  these  as  necessary  incidents 
of  His  introduction  to  the  world.  Yet  you  may 
put  all  these  aside  for  the  moment  if  you  wisli. 
Himself  is  His  greatest  miracle.  Oh  if  you  only 
knew  Jesus  Himself !  Not  just  His  character  and 
mission  revealed  in  His  word,  but  His  living  pres- 
ence which  is  here  and  everywhere.  You  said 
you  wondered  why  you  had  never  met  Him  in  this 


290  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

spirit  world,  and  here  He  is  right  by  our  side.* 

"  What  a  beautiful  delusion !  "  the  woman  ex- 
claimed. "  I  even  wish  that  I  might  be  held  by  it 
too." 

"  ■  Then  shall  ye  know," '  I  quoted,  "  '  if  ye 
follow  on  to  know  the  Lord.'  And  would  you 
really  like  to  be  a  Christian !  "  I  added  eagerly. 

"  For  the  yearning  of  a  woman's  heart,  indeed 
I  would,"  she  answered.  "  And  would  you  not 
also  like  to  be  a  socialist?  Then  there  would  be 
nothing  between  us  in  our  friendship,  would 
there?" 

"  I  am  a  socialist  "  I  acknowledged.  "  Heaven 
is  all  socialism." 

"  Then  if  you  are  a  socialist  already,"  she  said, 
"  I  will  give  you  the  sacred  kiss  of  fellowship, 
and  I  will  try  and  learn  to  be  a  Christian." 

It  seemed  very  sweet  to  be  so  trusted.  My 
heart  also  was  unspeakably  lonely  for  fellowship. 
And  beside  I  reasoned  eagerly  of  what  might  be 
accomplished  by  joining  this  circle  toward  win- 
ning to  Christ  the  finest  souls  I  had  met  in  hell.. 
I  fear  emotion  was  fast  overmastering  judgment 
and  principle.  Our  souls  had  almost  met  when 
the  whisper  of  the  Master  came  to  me  saying, 
"  Beware !  "  Instantly  I  remembered  what  the 
Satana  had  said  about  kissing  full-blooded  men 
to  sleep.  I  looked  again  deep  into  the  warm, 
palpitating  soul  of  the  woman,  and  began  to  real- 
ize that  there  was  more  of  her  than  I  had  hitherto 
been  aware  of,  or  than  I  could  yet  discern  —  only 


A  NARROW  ESCAPE  291 

far  within  the  azure  depths  of  her  nature  I  dis- 
covered a  second  soul  cuticle,  and  upon  it,  to  my 
dismay  and  horror,  eight  little  callosities  in  two 
rows,  as  if  worn  by  the  handle  of  a  spade. 

"  Temptress !  "  I  exclaimed,  recoiling. 

A  little  spasm  of  contraction  passed  through 
her,  and  the  callous  spots  disappeared;  otherwise 
it  was  wonderful  to  see  how  well  she  maintained 
her  character,  and  showed  just  the  right  propor- 
tions of  surprise,  reproach,  wistfulness.  "  Do 
you  not  really  wish  then  to  be  one  of  our  circle?  " 
she  asked. 

"  I  fear  to,"  I  stammered. 

"  Your  Bible  says  there  is  no  fear  in  love,"  she 
reasoned.  "Why  will  you  spurn  ours?  Let  us 
love  you,  and  you  may  be  able  to  teach  us  many 
things." 

"  Anna,"  I  replied ;  "  since  you  wish  to  be 
called  by  that  name ;  as  I  look  into  your  soul  I  see 
something  which  frightens  me.  Whether  it  is  a 
reflection  from  somewhere,  or  whether  I  am  look- 
ing through  a  lens  which  brings  near  a  view  of 
something  far  away,  I  cannot  tell.  I  see  a  dark 
place  that  is  like  a  charnel  house  where  men  are 
dead  while  they  still  live.  They  quiver  in  and 
out  like  worms,  and  one  now  and  then  reaches  up 
painfully,  blindly  almost  back  to  life ;  only  to  fall 
back  again  into  the  quaking,  piteous  mass.  If 
I  should  let  you  kiss  me,  something  tells  me  it 
would  be  for  the  death.  You  would  enswathe  me 
in  your  greater  bulk  and  endeavor  to  suck  out 


292  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

reason,  purpose,  manhood  all  that  makes  me  truly 
alive.  Woman !  Devil !  when  will  you  give  up  this 
ghoulish  trade?  Can  you  not  see  that  my  Para- 
clete will  not  let  you  take  me  by  surprise?  You 
are  blood-famished,  crazy,  mad  with  crime.  Oh 
if  you  would  only  let  Christ  dissolve  that  spell; 
what  a  grand  force  for  God  you  might  be !  Poor 
creature!  you  lurk  for  souls  without  even  the  ex- 
cuse or  the  faculty  of  hating.  Won't  you  give 
it  all  up,  and  let  Jesus  save  you,  as  you  have  just 
pretended  you  were  half  inclined  to  do  ?  ** 

But  she  answered  still  in  character,  "  You  talk 
so  strangely  now,  Brother.  You  seem  to  take  me 
for  someone  else.  I  hope-  you  will  be  like  your 
first  self  when  we  meet  again." 


A  FEARFUL  RISK  293 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Rorer  reappeared  with  surprising  suddenness 
after  the  Satana  —  if  it  were  truly  she  —  had 
vanished.  Indeed  the  stealthy  scent  of  him  was 
on  the  air  of  hell  around  me  even  before  my  inter- 
view with  the  woman  had  ended.  This  prompt- 
ness, coupled  with  a  curious  disappointed  manner 
he  showed,  led  me  to  suspect  an  understanding 
between  them.  Indeed  suspicion  seemed  the  one 
faculty  demanded  by  my  situation ;  and  I  felt  that 
weakest  aptitude  of  my  nature  strained  beyond 
its  reach.  I  sighed  more  than  ever  for  Jeanie, 
who  had  ever  manifested  such  a  faculty  for  sizing 
people  up  promptly.  Jeanie  used  often  to  declare 
that  I  could  never  see  through  people,  especially 
nice  looking  women,  and  that  any  clever  woman 
could  manage  me  completely;  but  I  would  some- 
times reply  that  I  found  it  ever  so  much  pleasanter 
just  to  take  people  on  their  face  value ;  even  if  I 
could  not  idealize  and  mark  them  up  a  little  above 
par.  Such  inflation  of  the  currency  of  apprecia- 
tion could  not  bankrupt  me,  so  long  as  God  had 
placed  with  me  such  a  deposit  of  true  gold  in  the 
person  of  Jeanie  herself.  I  had  never  felt  quite 
so  incomplete  without  her,  as  now.  The  heavy  air 
of  hell  was  telling  on  me.  A  feeling  akin  to 
shame  and  contrition  pressed  me  down.  A  new 
problem  in  the  evangelization  of  hell  had  suddenly 
confronted  me.     Could  there  be  a  possible  danger 


294  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

for  the  heaven's  missionary  himself  of  succumb- 
ing to  its  insidious  influences,  falling  the  quarry 
of  some  unexpected  shaft  of  temptation,  and 
thus  dismally  augmenting  the  population  of  per- 
dition from  which  he  had  hoped  to  win  others  to 
the  Saviour?  I  thought  of  that  moment  when 
the  supposed  Anna  Pavlovna  was  about  to  wel- 
come me  into  the  circle.  The  friendship  offered 
had  seemed  almost  too  sweet.  Then  with  the 
sudden  seeming  revelation  of  a  death-trap  in  the 
offered  kiss  had  come  a  revulsion  of  feeling,  a 
blush  I  could  feel  upon  my  own  soul's  forehead, 
and  from  which  I  could  find  no  relief  except  in 
earnest  prayer  for  a  heart  kept  pure.  Could 
those  who  had  seen  God's  face,  who  had  been 
sealed  with  His  name  upon  their  forehead,  ever 
again  actually  fall  into  sin? 

The  thought  caused  me  such  shuddering,  that 
I  went  on  with  elder  Rorer,  stepping  carefully 
for  fear  of  pitfalls,  and  losing,  perhaps,  thereby 
some  of  the  interest  of  the  organizations  to  which 
he  introduced  me.  I  could  see  little  use  in  looking 
for  Harry  among  Clans  McAlpine,  Clans  NaGael, 
Clans  McCracker,  McGinnis,  the  Ancient  order 
of  Hibernians,  the  Mafia,  an  order  of  Martians, 
and  another  from  the  planets  of  Sirius.  Still  less 
did  I  really  expect  to  find  him  among  various  in- 
fidel clubs  to  which  my  guide  next  brought  me; 
for  Harry  had  never  seemed  capable  of  two 
thoughts  on  either  side  of  any  theological  prop- 
osition.    To  me  the  most  interesting  one  of  these 


DISEMBODIED  LIFE  295 

clubs  for  its  own  sake  was  one  which  called  itself 
the  "  Anti  Immortality  Society.  "  Curious  to 
hear  what  arguments  could  be  adduced  against 
that  continued  existence  which  we  were  all  actually 
experiencing;  I  stopped  to  listen  to  one  of  their 
debates.  The  question  was  put  in  a  negative 
form ;  viz ;  "  Resolved  that  there  is  no  future 
life,"  and  the  first  speaker  upon  the  affirmative  of 
this  proposition  adduced  the  argument  that  it  was 
simply  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  disembodied 
existence  for  the  human  soul.  "  All  the  mental 
activities  of  which  science  could  take  cognizance 
from  infancy  to  old  age,"  he  declared,  "  were  ab- 
solutely conditional  upon  brain  activity.  When 
the  nerves  went  absolutely  to  sleep,  the  so-called 
soul  of  man  practically  ceased  to  exist;  if  we 
accept  the  dictum  of  philosophy  that  being  is 
activity.  How  then  can  death,  by  any  possibility, 
be  anything  more  than  an  eternal  sleep?  How 
can  the  identity  of  a  spirit  be  preserved  with  no 
form  of  physical  life  upon  which  to  fasten  it? 
How  could  there  be  any  communication  between 
it  and  other  spirits  ?  " 

To  these  questions,  one  who  had  been  appointed 
to  uphold  the  negative  side  of  the  debate  replied, 
somewhat  perfunctorily,  that  there  was  still  a 
tertiwm  quid,  a  possible  means  of  compassing 
immortality;  and  while  his  distinguished  protag- 
onist had  clearly  set  forth  the  unthinkableness  of 
a  continued  existence  for  the  soul  of  man  inde- 
pendent of  his  body ;  there  was  still  the  alternative 


296  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

left  that  a  new  embodiment  might  in  some  manner 
be  achieved  or  affected,  either  by  a  transmigra- 
tion, a  resurrection,  or  the  adhesion  of  the  soul 
to  some  more  ethereal  type  of  protoplasm,  adapted 
better  to  sustain  its  activities  and  to  broaden  their 
scope. 

But  the  second  speaker  on  the  affirmative  side 
now  contended  in  rebuttal  that  the  moment  of 
transfer  for  the  soul  from  one  body  to  another, 
however  infinitesimally  brief  that  moment  might 
be  conceived  to  be,  would  be  one  of  practically 
independent  disembodied  existence ;  and  therefore 
an  entire  impossibility  and  inconceivability,  as 
had  been  succinctly  proven  by  his  colleague  in 
opening  the  debate. 

Thus  the  second  speaker  on  the  negative  side 
had  really  no  ground  left  to  stand  upon.  He 
could  only  feebly  inquire  by  what  explanation  his 
confreres  of  the  affirmative  were  prepared  to  meet 
the  apparent  phenomena  of  their  own  present 
situation.  "  We  seem  to  have  no  bodies,  parts  or 
passions,"  he  declared ;  "  at  least  of  a  physical 
order.  And  yet  here  we  are,  apparently,  very 
much  to  our  own  surprise,  living  on,  remembering 
well  the  details  of  our  mortal  existence  down  to 
the  moment  of  disollution;  the  moment  when  our 
moribund  circulation  of  blood  ceased  to  sustain 
consciousness,  and  parting  the  heavy  curtains  of 
futurity,  the  essential  self  of  each  of  us  passed 
into  this  which  some  call  the  spirit  world.     We 


DISPROVED  IMMORTALITY       297 

still  say,  each  to  himself,  *  Ego  sum  9:  '  This  is  I.' 
We  perceive  without  senses,  and  we  converse  with- 
out words.  We  recognize  each  other  at  the  first 
approach  and  greet  one  another  across  the  uni- 
verse." 

"  It  is  not  for  me,"  he  continued,  "  but  for  the 
wiser  minds  upholding*  the  affirmative  of  this 
proposition  to  explain  these  anomalies.  I  cannot 
advance  them  in  argument;  for  all  argument  on 
this  question  was  successfully  closed  by  the  last 
speaker.  I  simply  place  them  before  your  august 
minds  as  worthy,  at  least,  of  passing  interest,  if 
not  of  careful  scientific  investigation." 

Thus  challenged,  the  men  of  the  affirmative 
brought  forth  two  such  profound  explanations  of 
continued  soul  life  as  to  overpower  questioning 
by  their  very  ingenuity.  One  contended  that 
brain  life  continued  for  a  time  in  a  ghost  body, 
so  ethereal  as  to  be  past  perception,  yet  sufficient- 
ly physical  to  be  in  touch  with  the  universe. 
"  We  were  never  conscious  of  our  own  brain  ma- 
terial," he  explained,  "  and  we  only  learned  of 
t>ur  own  bodies  by  the  education  of  the  senses 
and  of  the  judgment  during  early  life."  The 
second  speaker  thought  that  mental  activity  might 
continue  for  a  period  by  virtue  of  the  momentum 
imparted  to  it  before  dissolution  from  the  body. 
"  As  in  the  hallucinations  of  starving  men,"  he 
said,  "  or  the  remarkable  visions  reported  by  those 
who  have  spent  some  time  in  a  state  of  coma,  sa 


298  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

consciousness  may  flicker  above  the  wick  of  the 
expiring  brain  for  a  little  while  before  it  too 
passes  into  nothingness." 

Both  agreed  strongly  in  calling  attention  to  the 
exact  form  of  resolution  which  they  were  de- 
bating, viz:  that  there  was  no  future  life,  and 
made  it  quite  plain  that  whatever  might  be  the 
appearance  of  things  in  their  present  condition, 
absolutely  unanswerable  arguments  had  been 
brought  forward  to  convince  all  minds  present 
that  it  could  not  be  real  or  lasting,  so  that  all 
might  wait  the  rapidly  approaching  moment  when 
oblivion  would  claim  its  own,  and  life's  fitful 
dream  be  rounded  by  eternal  sleep.  The  speak- 
ers upon  the  negative  side  were  thus  left  with 
nothing  more  to  advance,  and  the  appointed  judge 
of  the  debate  formally  declared  that  it  had  been 
won  by  those  of  the  affirmative.  Thereupon  the 
resolution,  as  originally  put,  was  passed  by  the 
members  of  the  society  without  a  dissenting  voice, 
and  the  exercises  for  the  time  being  would  have 
closed  with  an  adjournment  sine  die  (in  con- 
sistency with  their  reassured  conviction  that  they 
were  none  of  them  likely  to  exist  much  longer  in 
order  to  reassemble),  if  the  president  of  the  so- 
ciety had  not  suggested  that  it  would  be  much 
more  pleasant  to  remain  in  session  for  the  brief 
time  probably  yet  allotted  them  to  live,  and  to 
throw  the  meeting  open  for  such  comforting  re- 
flections as  might  be  profitably  brought  forward 
by  any  who  felt  so  disposed.     Thereupon  there 


HELL'S  DEAREST  HOPE  299 

came  a  pause  in  the  meeting  so  long  and  so  dis- 
mal that  I  was  forcibly  reminded  of  some  of  our 
Christian  Endeavor  prayer  meetings  in  Colby. 
The  president  finally  remarked  with  some  em- 
barrassment and  with  evident  reluctance  that  they 
found  themselves  honored  by  the  presence  of  two 
visitors,  and  should  either  of  these  gentlemen 
find  himself  strongly  disposed  to  make  a  few  re- 
marks in  the  few  moments  still  left  to  them  be- 
fore the  meeting  must  close  perforce  by  the  stroke 
of  the  hour  of  extinction,  he  was  at  liberty  to 
express  himself  as  he  saw  fit.  Thus  encouraged, 
and  finding  Rorer  dumb,  I  thought  I  would  make 
an  effort  to  be  civil,  at  least,  and  say  something. 
So,  with  a  heart's  cry  to  God  for  help  to  put 
some  saving  truth  before  their  bigoted  minds,  I 
ventured  to  call  their  attention  to  one  omission 
noticeable  throughout  the  course  of  their  debate. 
"  Gentlemen,"  I  said,  "  I  too  have  wondered  over 
the  inconceivableness  of  the  spirit  life,  both  be- 
fore and  after  I  came  to  die.  I  have  been  puz- 
zled to  know  how  the  soul  of  man  apparently 
continues  to  exist  without  activity  in  the  body's 
deepest,  dreamless  sleep.  I  have  seen  the  flame 
of  consciousness  smothered  slowly  out  in  forms 
that  were  dear  to  me,  and  while  the  brave  heart 
kept  on  beating  and  the  loud  breath  came  and 
went  for  days  and  nights  of  the  death  coma,  I 
have  asked  myself  over  and  over,  '  how  can  there 
be  any  soul  independent  of  this  stiffening  clay  ?  ' 
I  have  died  myself,  even  as  you.     I  knew  for  days 


300  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

that  I  was  dying:  I  said  good-by  to  my  dearest. 
I  spoke  to  them  of  a  meeting  beyond,  which 
would  have  seemed  almost  incredible  to  myself, 
judging  only  from  my  physical  sensations.  Con- 
sciousness  came  fitfully  between  intervals  of 
dreamless  sleep:  each  seeming,  as  it  overpowered 
me,  to  be  the  last  sleep  of  death.  Last  of  all,  I 
was  artificially  rallied  back  to  life  by  a  mere 
drug  —  just  for  one  kiss  upon  my  lips,  a  speach- 
less  glance  of  love  from  my  own  eyes  into  the 
loving  face  bent  over  mine,  and  I  took  the  plunge 
into  rayless  depths. 

Then  came  the  new  life.  I  could  not  under- 
stand it  at  all.  But  then  which  of  us  could  real- 
ly understand  one  moment  of  the  mortal  life?  It 
has  been  all  joy  and  wonder  for  over  a  hundred 
years. 

"  But  gentlemen,"  I  said,  "  I  seem  to  have  one 
factor  in  the  equations  of  this  gigantic  problem 
to  which  none  of  you  in  your  debate  has  given 
its  proper  place.  It  is  the  one  great  Known 
Quantity  without  which  —  I  should  say  without 
Whom  —  all  our  calculating,  though  it  were 
chalked  over  the  scroll  of  space,  ends  about  where 
it  began.  I  have  GOD.  Your  debaters  spoke  in 
scientific  phrase  of  brain  action  supporting  con- 
sciousness in  the  mortal  life ;  but  what,  may  I  ask, 
was  brain  action  or  any  other  physical  phenom- 
enon, but  a  little  part  of  the  life  of  God  ?  What 
we  call  matter  is  only  an  unknown  something  or 
Someone,  which  we  are  compelled  to  think  as  ex- 


GOD  AND  IMMORTALITY         301 

isting  to  be  the  substratum  of  motion ;  for  all 
physical  qualities,  color,  taste,  sound,  resistance, 
heat,  chemical  properties,  and  the  like,  are  forms 
of  motion  and  betray  a  Force,  a  Life  not  our  own 
or  any  other  man's,  but  God's  force,  God's  life 
alone.  When  the  brain  dies,  God  does  not  die. 
He  simply  passes  my  soul  life  from  one  hand  to 
the  other  and  supports  it  still.  In  Him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being.  On  earth  it  was 
by  means  of  life  blood  renewing  nerve  and  brain. 
Here  the  thing  is  more  directly,  hardly  more  won- 
derfully, done.  Brain  action  was  only  one  little 
form  of  God-action.  This  has  never  stopped  and 
never  will.  Supported  by  this  inexhaustible 
world's  power  plant,  this  uncheckable  world's 
dynamo,  the  current  of  your  thought  and  of  mine 
flows  on  just  so  long  as  God  wills  it  so. 

"  Gentlemen,"  I  concluded,  "  it  still  seems  al- 
most incredible  that  the  soul  can  live  without  the 
body,  but  that  is  only  our  short-sighted  percep- 
tion of  the  basal  fact  that  the  soul  cannot  live 
without  God.  As  sure  as  God  is  God,  thought 
cannot  die,  love  cannot  die,  conscience  cannot  die. 
The  very  questions  you  ask  prove  you  to  be  im- 
mortal. Our  questioning,  our  incompleteness 
show  God's  plan  so  far  from  being  worked  out  in 
any  of  our  lives,  that  we  need  not  have  one 
thought  of  an  end  while  that  sure  eternal  plan 
and  decree  are  still  unrealized.  Our  unbounded 
capacity  for  growth  demands  eternity,  for  its 
process.     The  one  thing  alone  you  and  I  have 


302  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

to  dread  is  that  for  a  moment  or  an  aeon,  we 
should  not  be  growing  as  God  wills." 

I  might  have  said  a  good  deal  more,  for  after 
the  supreme  effort  of  assurance  in  getting  started 
to  address  such  an  unwilling  audience,  the  zest 
of  stirring  things  made  it  hard  to  stop.  But  just 
at  this  point  the  president  of  the  society  inter- 
rupted me  and  gravely  but  firmly  gave  me  the  re- 
minder that  the  question  on  which  I  was  essay- 
ing to  speak  had  been  positively  passed  upon  by 
the  decision  of  their  appointed  judge  of  the 
debate,  and  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  their  mem- 
bers, and  consequently  at  the  risk  of  seeming  dis- 
courtesy to  a  visitor,  he  found  himself  reluctantly 
compelled  to  rule  my  remarks  out  of  order. 

I  protested  that  I  had  heard  him  call  for  com- 
forting reflections,  and  had  been  endeavoring  to 
furnish  those. 

He  replied  with  dignity  and  firmness,  not  un- 
mixed with  asperity,  that  the  comfort  asked  for 
was  for  those  firmly  convinced  of  their  approach- 
ing extinction,  and  that  it  could  afford  no  com- 
fort to  confuse  the  mind  with  a  jumble  of  maudlin 
nonsense. 

Rorer  now  also  spoke,  apologizing  for  my  line 
of  address,  and  suggesting  that  it  was  time  for 
us  to  be  going  on.  He  said  that  it  seemed  to  him 
highly  unbecoming  for  an  outsider  to  be  letting 
off  his  crude  flights  of  fancy  there,  and  inter- 
rupting the  philosophical  calm  of  a  society  of 
thinkers  steadying  each  other  to  meet  the  con- 


UNWELCOME  303 

elusion  of  their  existence.  In  fact  he  intimated 
plainly  that  he  was  ashamed  of  me,  and  so  by 
dint  of  their  pushing  and  his  pulling  I  found  my- 
self separated  from  their  assembly  with  no  proof 
of  good  accomplished,  and  found  myself  going 
on  with  a  somewhat  heavier  heart,  to  see  what 
stranger  kind  of  people  hell  might  hold. 

How  much  further  our  progress  might  have 
continued  I  cannot  tell,  but  it  was  interrupted 
by  an  approach  which  filled  me  with  surprise  and 
pity,  while  it  evidently  caused  Rorer  great  an- 
noyance. It  was  his  youngest  daughter,  a  child 
of  ten  or  twelve  years  when  I  had  last  seen  her 
on  earth. 

"  The  brat !  she  haunts  me,"  Rorer  exclaimed. 

"  I  should  think  you  would  be  glad  to  have 
her  come,"  I  mused.  "  She  seemed  strangely 
wistful  for  your  affection  when  she  would  come 
to  Sunday  school,  or  meet  you  at  the  little 
church." 

"  Yes,  and  when  she  died  by  Hanging  herself 
from  the  beam  of  the  barn  about  six  months 
after  you  left  Serenity,  people  generally  blamed 
it  on  me." 

This  was  shocking  news  indeed.  I  wondered 
how  our  correspondents  could  have  kept  it  from 
us,  or  how  Jeanie  and  I  could  have  failed  to 
take  knowledge  of  such  an  event  after  coming  to 
heaven.  I  remembered  well  the  great  dark  eyes 
of  the  child,  the  shadow  that  was  never  lifted 
from  her  face,  her  hesitation  to  believe  anything 


304  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

glad.  I  could  well  understand  how  she  might 
have  brooded  over  her  mother's  sorrow,  until 
some  grey  day,  after  one  of  her  father's  terrible 
visits,  living  may  have  seemed  almost  more  than 
the  child  could  bear.  She  came  to  us  now,  her 
soul  shivering  as  if  from  cold,  but  her  father  re- 
ceived her  with  a  manner  to  chill  her  even  more. 
"  Oh  Father !  "  she  said,  "  I  have  looked  for  you 
so  long !     Father,  I  am  so  lonely !  " 

"  What  do  I  care  how  lonely  you  are ! "  Rorer 
exclaimed ;  "  I'd  like  to  know  how  you  came  in 
here  anyway." 

The  child's  distress  was  pathetic  beyond  de- 
scription. Often  at  Mount  Latitude  my  heart 
would  go  out  to  her  with  an  ache  of  pity,  but 
then  she  did  have  some  home  life.  Now  she 
was  alone  in  hell,  and  still  a  child  in  soul,  strange- 
ly undeveloped  amid  the  meagerness  of  perdition. 

"  Maggie,"  I  said,  "  do  you  know  me  ?  " 

"  I  know  you,  because  you  are  sorry  for  me," 
she  said.  "  Mr.  Prester,  can't  you  get  Papa  to 
be  kind  to  me  once  more?  " 

"  My  poor  little  girl ! "  I  replied,  "  can  you 
still  remember  all  that  we  told  you  in  the  Sab- 
bath school  about  your  other,  your  Heavenly 
Father,  and  how  He  is  always  trying  to  be  kind 
to   you?  " 

"  But  you  know  it  isn't  true  really,"  she  re- 
plied. 

"  It  is  as  true  as  the  worlds  and  the  stars.  It 
is  true  as  the  buttercup  yonder  in  the  meadow. 


LONELY  305 

I  know  because  God  has  been  so  kind  to  me.  He 
has  given  me  all  my  dear  home  folks  and  we  live 
together  in  this  great,  wonderful  universe  every- 
where at  home,  for  everywhere  we  are  together  is 
heaven." 

"  How  can  I  know  ?  "  she  asked.  "  He  never 
was  kind  to  me." 

"  Dear  Maggie,"  I  answered,  "  God  wants  you 
to  give  him  your  heart  so  that  He  can  be  kind  to 
you  and  make  up  for  everything.  I  believe  He 
would  like  you  to  come  away  with  me  to  heaven. 
Your  mother  is  there  and  many  of  your  old 
schoolmates.  I  know  He  wants  you  and  me  to 
pray  together  for  your  poor  father  here  — " 

At  this  point  Rorer  interrupted  me  with  a  hor- 
rible oath.  "  None  of  that,  you  snivelling  hypo- 
crite ! "  he  cried.  "  Trying  to  get  my  daughter 
to  go  away  with  you  somewhere,  and  then  both  of 
you  pretend  to  pray  for  me ! " 

"  Oh  Father !  "  Maggie  cried,  with  a  gleam 
of  hope  brightening  the  surface  of  her  sorrow- 
ful soul,  "  do  you  really  care  if  I  should  go  away? 
Father,  I  will  never  leave  you  if  you  will  love 
me !  "      She  made  a  timid  effort  to  embrace  him. 

Rorer  swore  at  her  in  a  slow,  deliberate,  heart- 
chilling  way,  struck  her  a  blow  of  resentment,  and 
spurned  her  with  a  kick  of  hate.  "  You  and 
this  hypocrite  set  the  community  against  me,"  he 
complained.  "  You  hung  yourself  and  left 
everybody  to  blame  me  for  it.  I  don't  care  where 
you  go,  or  who  you  go  with,  or  what  becomes  of 


306  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

you,  so  you  never  let  me  see  your  cursed  ghost 
again." 

This  was  where  Satan  took  me  off  my  guard. 
A  sensation  rose  within  me  which  I  had  not  expe- 
rienced in  all  heaven's  years.  God  forgive  me !  I 
became  angry  with  Rorer.  An  impulse  of  what 
seemed  righteous  indignation  came  upon  me,  and 
before  I  realized  it,  or  had  taken  time  to  pray,  a 
keen  joy  of  resentment  toward  the  father,  min- 
gled with  passionate  pity  for  the  child  tingled 
through  every  fibre  of  my  being.  Patience,  I 
felt,  had  ceased  to  be  a  virtue.  Strong,  self-  re- 
straint was  cast  aside  with  a  dangerous  exultation 
at  being  morally  free  to  show  the  man  what  I 
thought  of  him.  I  forget  the  example  of  Michael 
the  archangel.  I  tremble  still,  as  I  remember 
how  I  felt.  Rorer's  child  was  slipping  away, 
crushed,  desolate,  stunned  by  her  sorrow.  I  drew 
her  to  me  and  turned  to  face  the  creature  who 
stood  to  her  for  a  father,  with  an  impulse  to 
shake  him  out  of  his  soul's  wicked  skin. 

"  You  unspeakable  brute !  "  I  exclaimed. 

At  that  moment  something  cracked  and  gave 
way  beneath  me.  I  seemed  to  fall  a  great  dis- 
tance, inhaling  hot  flame,  and  with  walls  narrow- 
ing upon  me  as  I  fell.  At  last  I  struck  ground 
painlessly,  as  in  a  nightmare.  The  surroundings 
of  the  universe  were  unchanged,  Rorer  and  the 
girl  were  still  with  me,  but  all  else  was  terribly 
different,  for  I  had  become  a  part  of  hell.  I  was 
not  only  in  hell,  but  hell  was  getting  into  me. 


FALLEN  307 

Rorer  had  noted  my  catastrophe  and  leaped  upon 
me  in  rage  and  exultation.  I  never  knew  a  man 
who  could  work  up  anger  to  such  imposing  pro- 
portions. "  Curse  you !  "  he  cried.  "  My  hour 
has  come.  Now  I  have  you  where  I  can  handle 
you.  You  are  the  man  that  plotted  and  schemed 
until  you  deprived  me  of  my  eldership.  You  put 
me  out  of  the  church.  All  the  people  in  the  coun- 
ty knew  about  it.  You  lowered  me  before  every- 
body. You  robbed  me  of  the  friendship  of  the 
woman  I  loved.  It  was  you  who  said,  the  first 
time  you  took  dinner  with  us  at  her  mother's 
house,  that  if  we  really  loved  each  as  brother 
and  sister,  we  ought,  for  love's  sake,  to  separate 
and  never  have  anything  to  do  with  each  other 
any  more.  And  it  was  you  that  denounced  her 
in  your  meeting  and  drove  the  dread  of  hell  into 
her  heart,  which  led  to  her  conversion  twenty 
years  after,  and  then  she  never  would  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  me  any  more.  Haven't  I  got 
something  to  settle  with  you,  you  scented  pharisee, 
you  sanctified  humbug,  you  smirking  angel,  you 
Jesuit,  you  scheming  persecutor,  you  seducer  of 
little  girls  from  their  parents,  you  cloaked  re- 
ligionist, you  hell  tramp,  nosing  into  the  secrets 
of  orders  to  which  you  don't  belong  ?  " 

So  he  went  on  heaping  invective  and  taunt  upon 
me,  stinging  me  with  the  repeated  thrust  of  his 
malice,  with  the  expectation  no  doubt  of  bring- 
ing me  to  retaliate  and  thus  of  dragging  me 
deeper  down. 


308  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

But  a  more  powerful  emotion  protected  me. 
The  dread  of  losing  heaven,  and  of  forfeiting 
God's  love  had  swept  over  my  soul,  damping  the 
fire  of  anger.  The  feeling  of  shame,  novel  be- 
cause so  long  unknown,  bowed  me  down  almost 
below  the  capability  for  resentment.  How  could 
I  ever  meet  Jeanie  and  Joy  and  mother  in  heaven 
now?  I  had  been  vulgarly  angry:  I  had  used 
an  epithet.  Those  blessed  women  seemed  ten 
times  further  away  than  they  had  before  after 
all  these  weary  weeks  of  exploration  into  the  re- 
mote remainders  of  hell.  Worst  of  all  I  could  no 
longer  lay  hold  of  God.  It  seemed  strangely 
difficult  to  pray,  and  the  din  Rorer  was  making 
confused  all  my  thoughts.  Perhaps  this  was  a 
part  of  his  purpose,  for  he  seemed  to  be  helped 
in  it  by  numberless  grueome  creatures  of  whose 
activity  around  me  in  hell  I  had  never  before 
been  so  conscious.  Imps  and  fiends  gaped  and 
snarled  about  me.  Owl-like  shadows  flitted 
back  and  forth  snapping  hungry  beaks.  Teeth 
were  being  gritted,  serpent  rattles  shaken,  claws 
sharpened.  Scaly  folds  crawled  slowly  across  me, 
fangs  scratched  me,  forked  tongues  shot  in  and 
out  touching  me,  great  jaws  yawned  across  my 
soul  and  cold,  slimy  things  began  to  suck  at  me. 
The  nearing  yap  of  hungry  pursuers  came  to  my 
hearing,  and  a  sickening  vulturine  odor  mingled 
with  Rorer's  hyena  scent.  Look  where  I  would, 
red  eyes  gleamed  in  the  darkness,  stealthy  forms 
crouched  and  stalked  about. 


AS  AN  ANGEL  OF  LIGHT         309 

I  felt  the  necesity  of  facing  every  way  at  once, 
and  with  a  sickening  of  the  heart,  I  began  to 
acknowledge  to  myself  that  I  was  afraid.  A 
strange  lassitude  was  creeping  over  me.  All 
these  weeks  and  months  of  hell  must  have  told 
upon  me  more  than  I  had  realized.  I  did  not 
feel  equal  to  the  struggle  which  was  upon  me.  So 
many  decades  had  passed  by  since  I  had  known 
the  sensation  of  weariness ;  the  strangeness  of  it 
frightened  me.  I  cried  to  God  in  desperation, 
but  there  was  such  confusion  within,  as  well  as 
about  me ;  I  could  not  feel  sure  that  He  heard  me 
in  acceptance  of  my  prayer.  Then  a  stranger 
thing  still  happened.  From  the  far  distance  came 
an  angel  —  at  first  only  just  a  luminous  speck 
of  mild  radiance,  then  disclosing  as  it  came  nearer 
the  form  and  the  benignancy  of  a  beautiful  moth- 
er spirit.  The  tumult  seemed  to  abate  around  me 
at  her  approach.  Even  Rorer  railed  less  impres- 
sively. 

I  remember  wondering  why  an  angel  had  been 
sent  to  succor  me,  when  I  so  sorely  felt  the  need 
of  Jesus  Himself.  Then  I  thought  of  how  it  is 
written  that  when  our  Lord  was  agonizing  in  the 
garden  an  angel  appeared  comforting  Him.  But 
I  was  in  such  distress,  and  so  overmastered  with 
foes,  that  like  a  drowning  man  grasping  at  straws, 
I  was  disposed  to  avail  myself  of  the  first  succor 
offered.  And  before  I  had  really  taken  time  to 
reflect  upon  this  rather  ignominious  and  uncer- 
tain line  of  retreat,  I  found  myself  enfolded  in 


310  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

the  shimmering  radiance  of  the  wonderful  moth- 
er angel  which  shut  out  noise  and  perturbation 
as  with  silken  curtains  fold  on  fold.  I  felt  that 
I  was  being  lifted  and  borne  away,  away :  I  found 
it  hard  to  care  whither.  A  delicious  drowsiness 
was  coming  over  me.  I  had  not  felt  the  ap- 
proach of  such  sleep  for  the  whole  reach  of  spirit 
life.  In  heaven  here  we  have  intervals  of  relax- 
ation, when  for  very  fullness  of  joy  and  peace 
the  soul  remits  its  eager  activities  just  to  nestle 
for  awhile  contentedly  into  the  bosom  of  infinite 
love.  But  the  influence  I  found  wrapping  me  in 
at  this  time  in  hell  was  more  like  the  sleep  of 
exhaustion,  as  I  had  known  it  back  in  the  earthly 
life.  Under  its  spell  effort  even  of  thought  grew 
dull;  concern  for  the  future  and  the  past  alike 
seemed  hardly  worth  while.  Like  a  weary  child 
folded  to  the  deep  breast  of  its  mother,  I  was 
sinking  to  rest  without  a  care.  A  lullaby,  soft  as 
the  note  of  a  cuckoo,  crooned  in  the  cadence  of 
the  angel  mother's  voice.  Her  caress  was  like 
the  light  passing  of  a  mesmeric  hand  across  my 
soul.  She  seemed  to  have  not  a  single  reproach 
to  give  me  for  the  waywardness  of  my  outburst 
of  anger  against  poor  Rorer.  It  seemed  already 
a  long,  long  time  since  it  had  happened.  All  that 
had  led  up  to  it  seemed  to  have  transpired  weeks 
and  months  ago.  The  retrospect  was  becoming 
blurred  as  upon  slowly  closing  eyelids,  and  the 
heaven-life  itself  seemed  so  far  away,  so  unreal, 
as  hardly  to  repay  the  effort  of  remembering  it 


IN  EXTREMIS  311 

any  more.  There  was  indeed  an  undercurrent  of 
uneasiness  and  dissatisfaction  in  my  mental  state, 
like  that  with  which  the  brain  reluctantly  yields 
to  the  power  of  some  soporific  drug.  The  angel- 
ic being  who  had  thus  unexpectedly  taken  me  in 
charge,  herself  encouraged  me  with  a  tenderness 
that  was  almost  more  than  motherly.  "  My  poor 
tired  boy,"  she  said,  stooping  as  if  to  give  me  a 
good-night  kiss,  "  this  temptation  was  more  than 
you  could  be  expected  to  bear.  How  could  any- 
one help  being  provoked  with  Rorer?  " 

A  moment  more,  and  the  kiss  of  spirits  would 
have  been  given  me ;  but  these  words  of  suggested 
reproach  upon  providence  roused  me  to  a  partial 
consciousness  of  something  going  wrong,  and 
looking,  even  with  glazing  sight,  I  saw  close  be- 
side me  upon  the  cuticle  of  this  great,  soft,  en- 
folding soul,  as  though  it  were  upon  a  hand 
about  to  be  laid  playfully  upon  my  eyes,  the 
callous  spots  of  a  digger  of  graves.  Like  one 
struggling  with  a  nightmare,  I  began  endeavor- 
ing to  wrench  myself  free;  but  the  soft  arms  of 
the  other's  soul  clung  around  me  like  the  tentacles 
of  an  octopus.  Instead  of  floating  upward  as  it 
had  at  first  seemed,  I  realized  that  I  was  being 
drawn  downward  swiftly  toward  inky  depths,  and 
that  the  embrace  which  had  seemed  so  restful  was 
in  reality  drawing  away  my  strength  and  deaden- 
ing every  faculty  of  resistance.  Like  a  drown- 
ing man,  I  thought  of  a  thousand  things  at  once : 
of  what  it  would  mean  to  those  who  loved  me, 


31£  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

should  I  never  come  back  to  heaven,  of  the  re- 
proach brought  upon  the  name  of  a  redeemed 
and  blood-washed  soul  dragged  down  to  living 
death  by  yielding  to  the  embrace  of  a  goddess 
Devi,  of  the  slow  pains  of  eternal  dissolution  to 
a  soul  that  is  supurating  at  the  raw  ends  of  all 
its  nerves  throughout  impotent  ages  in  the  charnel 
house  of  hell.  I  thought  of  all  the  souls  in  whose 
salvation  I  had  become  interested  here  in  hell  and 
of  the  millions  of  still  more  active  minds  to  whom, 
if  I  had  kept  true  to  God,  I  might  have  gone  as 
the  herald  of  a  new  hope  in  Christ.  Then  with 
the  revulsion  of  an  unspeakable  horror  rallying 
my  failing  force,  I  strove  once  again  to  push 
away  from  the  livid  bosom  of  this  great  ghoul  of 
souls  in  whose  clutch  I  was  being  dragged  to  liv- 
ing entombment.  Alas!  my  strength  single- 
handed  and  devitalized,  was  as  nothing  to  hers. 
The  vastness  of  her  bulk  enveloped,  blinded,  over- 
weighed  me.  The  folds  which  had  so  smoothly 
slipped  about  me  tightened  and  clung  as  with  a 
million  roughened  scales,  while  I  struggled  to  be 
free.  Overmastered  by  the  sheer  power  of  a 
tremendous,  wicked  will,  and  half  swooning  in  my 
despair,  I  was  drawn  downward  still. 


DE  PROFUNDIS  313 


CHAPTER  XVII 

Then  conscience  and  the  better  soul  awoke 
with  a  start.  I  no  longer  cried  for  succor,  but 
for  forgiveness.  I  cannot  think  now  how  I  be- 
gan to  pray,  only  I  told  God  over  and  over  that 
I  was  so  sorry.  "  Oh,  I  cannot  find  Thee ! "  I 
cried,  "  and  I  need  God  so  much !  If  I  must  be 
lost,  still  let  me  love  Thee.  Surely  there  is  no 
deep  in  hell  which  Thy  love  has  not  sounded. 
Punish  me  as  I  deserve;  only  let  me  keep  on  lov- 
ing Thee.  I  am  so  sorry !  so  sorry !  Help  me  to 
show  it  in  the  tomb  of  dead  souls.  Help  me  to 
shout  even  into  their  dulled  hearing  that  God 
loves  them,  and  there  is  hope.  Oh  God,  forgive 
this  poor  Santana  who  has  captured  me!  She 
is  Thy  child  too,  God's  poor  lost  child.  Don't 
free  me  from  her,  if  I  can  keep  on  trying  to  save 
her.  God  bless  my  dear  girl  at  home  in  heaven ! 
God  bless  all  the  people  who  love  me  there.  Help 
them  to  wait  patiently  until  I  can  come  back,  and 
maybe  bring  Mrs.  Guinness  with  me.  Oh  forgive 
her,  and  save  her,  for  the  sake  of  the  Saviour 
who  died  for  her  too.  She  doesn't  really  know 
what  she  is  doing,  and  I'm  so  sorry  for  her !  I'm 
sorry  for  poor  Elder  Rorer  and  his  little  girl. 
God  save  them.  Oh  God,  save  us  all!  Make  us 
all  sorry  we  ever  got  started  going  wrong." 

Almost  as  I  began  to  pray  for  her,  the  she- 
devil's  hold  relaxed.     Thus  encouraged  I  contin- 


314  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

ued  pleading  for  her  salvation  in  tenderest  pity. 
I  remembered  that  she  had  told  me  no  one  had 
ever  addressed  her  personally  on  that  subject,  and 
I  argued  her  case  with  God  that  perhaps  it  had 
been  only  for  the  lack  of  positive  Christian  influ- 
ence and  by  the  turning  of  some  hair  of  destiny 
that  she  had  chosen  the  evil  path  instead  of  de- 
veloping into  a  power  for  righteousness.  "  Few 
women,"  I  argued  with  him,  "  ever  deliberately, 
intentionally,  and  maliciously  turn  to  a  life  of 
shame.  It  is  almost  always  brought  about  by 
some  trap  in  which  they  are  weakly  caught,  some 
flame  in  which  they  giddily  singe  the  moth-wings 
of  the  soul.  Oh  my  Master,"  I  pleaded,  "  surely 
the  grace  which  made  something  of  me  could  save 
and  make  glorious  use  of  her.  Save  her,  Lord; 
strike  conviction  into  her  heart;  confuse  her  ut- 
terly with  womanly  shame,  the  birth  pang  of  a 
true  woman's  soul.  Open*  her  sight  to  Jesus 
dying  for  her  sin,  and  help  her  to  believe  that 
God  loves  her  too,  and  will  save  her,  if  there  is 
power  in  omnipotence  to  do  it."  So  I  continued 
in  prayer,  perhaps  for  an  hour,  perhaps  several 
days,  and  when  I  could  think  of  nothing  more  to 
say,  I  looked  about  and  the  fiend-woman  was  gone ; 
the  suns  were  shining  almost  brightly  through  the 
angry  haze  of  hell,  and  in  my  own  heart  was  the 
unutterable  peace  of  a  soul  newly  forgiven. 

Trembling  to  turn  one  way  or  the  other  in  lean- 
ing to  my  own  understanding,  I  cried  more  ear- 
nestly than  I  had  yet  prayed  in  hell, — "  Lord, 


TOO  GOOD  TO  BE  TRUE  315 

what  will  Thou  have  me  to  do?  "  With  a  bound- 
ing heart  I  heard  His  gracious  whisper  close  be- 
side me,  saying,  "  Bring  the  child,"  and  the  next 
moment  I  found  myself  again  beside  little  Mag- 
gie Rorer.  To  my  great  relief  her  father  was 
not  there.  I  think  it  must  have  been  about  this 
time  that  he  became  wholly  absorbed  in  my  fath- 
er's trial  before  the  presbytery  of  perdition  on  the 
charge  of  heresy.  At  any  rate,  he  had  left  his 
child  alone  again  within  the  dreary  labyrinth  of 
the  arcanum  of  lodges,  where  I  found  her,  shiver- 
ing with  loneliness  and  dread.  She  was  about  to 
flee  from  me,  as  from  a  ghost's  ghost,  when  I  ap- 
proached, but  I  beckoned  to  her  cheerily,  and  she 
waited  for  me  in  a  hesitating,  timid  way.  "  Mag- 
gie," I  said  to  her,  "  I  want  you  to  come  away 
with  me,  by  God's  forgiveness  and  help,  to  meet 
your  mamma  in  heaven." 

"  But  you  know  there  isn't  any  heaven  really," 
the  child  answered. 

I  asked  her  if  she  had  ever  known  me  to  de- 
ceive her,  and  she  acknowledged  that  I  had  not 
about  other  things.  "  But  you  know  they  hired 
you  for  a  minister  in  Mount  Latitude,"  she  ar- 
gued, "  and  they  paid  you  to  talk  about  heaven 
and  '  God  so  loved,"  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  There 
never  was  anything  to  show  that  it  was  really 
true." 

"  But  Maggie,"  I  replied,  "  since  those  days 
I  have  died  and  been  in  heaven,  and  I  remember 
meeting  your  mother  there  once  or  twice.     She 


316  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

was  not  so  sorrowful  there  all  the  time ;  but  when 
I  saw  her,  she  was  like  a  young  girl  again,  happy 
and  light  hearted,  only  I  remember  she  still  had 
a  wistful  look;  I  suppose  it  must  have  been  be- 
cause she  was  thinking  now  and  then  of  you." 

"  I  would  like  to  see  my  mother  look  young 
and  happy,"  the  child  answered  again,  "  but  it 
sounds  too  much  like  a  Sunday  school  lesson  out 
of  the  Bible.  If  there  really  is  a  heaven,  and 
people  are  truly  happy  there,  and  you  were  happy 
too,  why  did  you  ever  come  away  ?  " 

"  I  only  came  to  hell  for  a  little  while,"  I  re- 
plied; "  just  to  look  for  some  of  God's  waifs  like 
you." 

"  But  if  you  are  so  good  and  kind  sure 
enough,"  the  child  questioned  doubtingly,  "  why 
did  you  get  mad  at  Father  and  call  him  a  brute, 
and  then  go  tumbling  down  in  that  strange 
way?  What  made  you  turn  him  out  of  the 
Mount  Latitude  church  anyway?  " 

Her  questions  confused  and  discouraged  me. 
"  Holy  Spirit,"  I  prayed,  "  show  me  how  to  lead 
this  poor  lost  child  to  Jesus.  She  doubts  me  and 
there  is  little  I  can  say  for  myself,  after  what  she 
has  seen  of  my  conduct  lately.  I  cannot  say  any- 
thing to  turn  her  heart  away  from  her  father.  I 
believe  she  would  rather  wander  around  after  him 
in  hell,  than  go  to  the  mother  in  heaven,  on  whose 
face  she  never  saw  a  smile.  Thou  hast  told  me 
to  bring  the  child,  and  I  could  not  bear  any- 
way to  leave  her  here;  yet  she  will  not  believe 


EVANGELISTIC  DESPERATION      317 

anything  good  I  tell  her.  I  can  do  nothing  with 
her,  and  unless  Thou  wilt  work  some  wonderful 
change  in  her  poor  little  heart ;  here  I  stick ;  but 
hopefully.  In  the  meantime,  Wilkinson  and 
Love  joy  are  needing  me,  as  I  perceive,  more  than 
ever,  and  there  are  Galpin,  and  Godson,  and  Wil- 
loughby,  and  oh,  so  many  thousand  and  million 
others  who  just  must  be  saved." 

It  was  at  that  moment  that  I  received  my  new 
baptism  as  a  soul-winner  in  hell.  It  came  over 
me,  with  deep  contrition,  that  I  had  been  going 
about  the  King's  business  in  a  dilletante,  will-if- 
I-can,  lackadaisical  way,  more  like  a  summer  tour- 
ist, or  Congressional  committee  of  investigation, 
than  as  God's  fireman  snatching  perishing  souls 
as  brands  from  the  burning.  It  came  over  me 
with  tremendous  urgency  that  the  King's  business 
was  demanding  haste,  even  more  in  hell,  with  its 
myriad  appeal  of  passing  opportunity,  than  on 
earth  with  its  narrower  range  of  helpful  soul-con- 
tact. So  at  that  moment  God  charged  my  listless 
soul  with  a  power  of  desperation  to  save,  and  save 
quick,  trusting  in  Him  alone  to  turn  on  the  cur- 
rent of  saving  power  every  time  I  pressed  the  but- 
ton of  believing  prayer.  I  turned  again  to  Ror- 
er's  child,  and  I  do  not  really  think  it  was  so  much 
what  I  said  to  her  now,  as  it  was  the  God-given 
longing  and  determination  to  tear  her  soul  out  of 
Satan's  net  that  did  the  work.  "  Maggie,"  I 
said,  "  God  wants  me  to  bring  you  away  to  heav- 
en.    You  must  come.     Bow  your  soul  here  by  my 


318  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

side  and  let  me  teach  you  what  to  say  to  your 
Saviour." 

The  child's  will  yielded.  Hesitatingly,  wpn- 
deringly,  but  with  increasing  solemnity,  she 
joined  the  current  of  her  thought  with  mine  in 
prayer.  Presently  she  ceased  to  tremble  so  pite- 
ously.  She  nestled  closer  to  my  side  and  the  voice 
of  her  soul  grew  stronger.  Suddenly  she  stopped 
with  a  little  gasp  of  surprise  and  of  gladness. 
"  Oh  Mr.  Prester ! "  she  exclaimed,  "  I  see  Jesus ! 
I  know  He  is  real  now,  for  I  see  Him.  He  is 
right  here  by  us  in  hell." 

I  was  silent  for  joy.  Again  she  spoke  with  a 
sob  melting  from  longing  into  ecstacy.  "  I  see 
Mamma ! "  she  exclaimed,  "  ever  and  ever  so  far 
away,  but  oh!  in  such  a  bright  place!  and  she 
does  look  different;  but  I  believe  she  is  praying 
too.     I  wonder  if  she  is  praying  for  me?  " 

"  Maggie,"  I  asked,  when  I  could  speak  for 
gladness,  "  will  you  give  yourself  all  to  Jesus 
now,  and  come  away  with  Him  and  with  me  to 
heaven,  where  your  Mamma  is  praying  ?  " 

"  It  is  so  kind  for  you  and  Jesus  to  want  me," 
she  answered.  "  Yes,  I  will  keep  close  between 
you,  and  I  won't  let  anybody  in  hell  pull  me 
away." 

Poor  little  girl !  Her  resolution  was  soon  to  be 
tested.  As  we  went  along  together  linked  in 
dear  hope,  she  asked  me  over  more  than  once, 
"  Do  you  think  God  will  forgive  me  forever  for 
hanging  myself?     It  was  so  wrong,  and  I  am 


SWEETLY  SAVED  319 

so  sorry ;  but  oh,  I  was  miserable  when  I  did  it ! " 

"  Talk  to  Jesus  yourself  about  it,"  I  counseled 
her  at  last. 

I  let  her  pray  just  for  herself,  and  did  not  seek 
to  enter  into  the  privacy  of  her  communion  with 
the  Master.  At  last  she  turned  to  me  with  a 
soul  that  was  radiant  even  in  its  awe.  "  He  an- 
swered me !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  I  spoke  to  Jesus 
and  He  spoke  back  to  me !  And  all  these  terrible 
years  I  have  been  believing  there  wasn't  really 
any  such  person !  " 

"  What  has  Jesus  said  to  you  ?  "  I  asked  won- 
deringly. 

"  He  told  me  that  He  died  for  poor  suicides 
too,"  the  girl  replied.  "  He  said  I  could  love  Him 
that  much  more,  and  He  told  me  He  had  a  great, 
great  errand  for  me  to  do,  to  prove  I  love  Him. 
Brother  Prester,"  she  whispered,  "  I  believe  Jesus 
is  going  to  let  me  be  the  one  to  save  poor  Father." 

I  thought  it  very  likely,  for  surely  no  one  else 
still  loved  Rorer  as  she  did.  I  still  sniffed  the 
air  of  hell  for  dread  of  his  scent  tracking  us,  as 
we  went  on,  and  as  I  told  her  of  the  two  men 
who  were  wishing  and  calling  for  me,  back  in 
Mystery  lodge. 

"  How  did  the  girl  get  in  here  ?  "  was  the  first 
question  Wilkinson  asked.  It  was  only  the  out- 
side Wilkinson  which  seemed  to  be  there  at  first. 

"  I  hardly  know  how  she  worked  her  way  in- 
side the  area  of  lodges,"  I  answered.  "  They  say 
love  laughs  at  bounds,  and  it  was  her  despairing 


320  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

love  for  her  father  that  drew  her  to  the  spot 
where  we  met." 

"  But  how  did  she  get  into  Freemasonry  ? 
Women  and  girls  are  not  allowed  here." 

"  That's  so !  "  I  exclaimed.  "  I  had  entirely 
overlooked  and  forgotten  about  that.  It  must  be 
all  my  fault.  We  came  in  the  back  way  this 
time,  so  to  speak,  you  know,  and  I  really  cannot 
tell  you  how  I  got  in  myself.  My  guide  had 
attended  to  all  the  details  of  pass-words  and  sig- 
nals in  our  progress  from  lodge  to  lodge,  and  he 
isn't  with  us  now.  I  guess  the  child  and  I  just 
came,  that's  all.  God  must  have  opened  the  way, 
without  any  thought  about  it  on  our  part." 

"  You  can  never,  either  of  you,  get  out  alive," 
Wilkinson  declared  anxiously.  "  It  is  death  to 
intrust  the  secrets  of  Freemasonry  to  a  female." 

"  She  will  get  out,"  I  declared  stoutly,  "  and 
so  will  I,  and  so  will  you,  just  when  God  calls  us 
out." 

Then  the  inner  Wilkinson  peeped  out,  a  visage 
grown  old  with  sorrow.  "  God  will  never  call  me 
out  of  here,"  he  said.  "  I  have  sinned  against  the 
Holy  Ghost." 

Then  he  was  about  to  disappear  behind  the 
other  Wilkinson,  but  I  made  a  grasp  of  sympathy 
to  hold  him.  "Dear  Philip,"  I  said,  "I  have 
lately  passed  through  an  experience  of  falling 
into  sin  which  almost  brought  me  to  think  the 
same  terrible  thought,  but  God  is  rich  in  mercy 


THE  UNPARDONABLE  SIN        321 

and  He  is  trying  me  again.  He  will  do  the  same 
for  you." 

"  I  don't  believe  you  did  it  on  purpose,  Do- 
minie," Wilkinson  declared.  "  Don't  the  Book 
say  that  if  we  sin  wilfully,  after  that  we  have  re- 
ceived a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remaineth 
no  more  sacrifice  for  sins,  but  a  certain  fearful 
looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation 
which  shall  devour  the  adversaries?" 

"  Now  Brother,"  I  exclaimed,  "  you  are  going 
to  suspect  me  beforehand  that  I  will  do  ,my  best  to 
explain  away  the  force  of  your  text ;  but  I  would 
like  to  tell  you,  half  the  bugaboos  in  the  New 
Testament  come  from  not  understanding  the 
Greek.  I  happen  to  have  had  a  talk  with  Pris- 
cilla  herself  about  her  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  what  she  really  wrote  was,  if  we  are  sinning 
wilfully  after  that  we  have  received  a  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  other  sacrifice 
for  sins.  Of  course  not,  there  never  was  but  the 
one.  There  is  none  other  name  but  that  of  Jesus 
given  under  heaven  among  men,  whereby,  if  saved 
at  all,  we  must  be  saved.  And  for  the  man  who 
is  in  that  state  of  wilful  sin  against  the  truth  of 
salvation  of  which  he  has  received  the  knowledge, 
the  man  who  has  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of 
God  and  hath  counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant 
wherewith  he  was  sanctified  an  unholy  thing,  and 
hath  done  despite  unto  the  Spirit  of  grace,  there 
is  no  hope  in  looking  for  some  other  Saviour. 


322  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

There  is  nothing  for  him  but  sore  punishment  and 
fearful  expectation,  until  he  gets  back,  like  Peter, 
to  the  dying  Saviour  whom  he  has  denied,  and 
whom  he  has  even  crucified  afresh,  and  put  Him  to 
an  open  shame." 

"  But  doesn't  Priscilla  say  that  it  is  impossible 
to  renew  such  backsliders  again  to  repentance?  " 
Wilkinson  persisted. 

"  With  men  this  is  impossible,"  I  quoted,  "  but 
with  God  all  things  are  possible.  He  has  done 
it  with  you,  brother.  You  are  already  deeply 
repentant.  And  let  me  assure  you,  however  dark 
these  passages  in  God's  Word  may  seem  to  you, 
they  certainly  do  not  apply  to  any  man  who  is  in 
a  state  of  genuine  heart-sorrow  for  sin.  This, 
in  itself,  proves  that  the  man  is  not  reprobate  but 
that  he  is  under  the  strong  reclaiming  influence 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  grace." 

But  Wilkinson  had  one  more  objection. 
"  Doesn't  John  say  that  there  is  a  sin  unto  death, 
and  we  mustn't  pray  for  that,"  he  asked. 

"  No,  he  says,  *  I  do  not  say  that  he  shall  pray 
for  it,'  "  I  answered.  "  I  fear  brother,  that  you 
have  your  knowledge  of  the  scriptures  from  going 
steadily  to  church,  rather  than  from  reading  the 
Bible  for  yourself.  Even  the  Beloved  Disciple 
may  have  hesitated  to  tell  us  that  we  may  pray  for 
the  sin  of  apostasy,  but  the  very  fact  that  he 
doesn't  dare  to  tell  us  not  to  pray  for  it  opens  a 
little  door  of  hope,  it  seems  to  me,  even  into  hell 
itself,  and  when  our  Lord  himself  says  of  the  sin 


WHERE  CONVICTION,  HOPE        323 

against  the  Holy  Spirit  that  it  shall  not  be  for- 
given men,  either  in  the  mortal  age  or  in  the 
aeon  to  come,  he  gives  us  fairly  clear  ground  of 
hope  that  there  is  a  forgiveness  of  sins  in  eter- 
nity." 

Charlie  Lovejoy  came  groping  to  us  at  that 
moment.  "  You  were  speaking  of  the  sin  that  is 
unto  death,"  he  said.  "  Isn't  it  such  as  I  who 
have  sinned  that?  I  cut  myself  out,  of  the  mor- 
tal state  of  probation,  and  didn't  that  seal  my 
doom?  " 

"  Are  you  sorry  you  did  it  ?  "  I  asked  him. 

"  More  sorry  than  eternity  can  tell,"  he  an- 
swered. 

"  But  are  you  sorry  just  for  your  own  wel- 
fare," I  asked  again,  "  because  you  threw  away 
something  that  was  valuable  to  you  ?  Or  are  you 
sorry  toward  God  and  ashamed  for  having  grieved 
His  love?" 

Lovejoy's  soul  shook  with  emotion.  "  Sorry 
and  ashamed,"  he  sobbed. 

"  Then  let  us  dare  to  pray  for  mercy  on  our 
three  sinful  souls,"  I  urged.  "  We  are  under 
conviction  of  God's  Spirit,  and  that  alone  shows 
we  have  not  grieved  Him  away  forever.  I  tell 
you  boys,  I  am  right  in  the  same  boat  with  you. 
I  can  see  I  have  been  trusting  hitherto  even  to  the 
point  of  overconfidence,  in  the  sealing  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Now  I  am  trusting  in  nothing  but  my 
Saviour's  mercy  and  grace  to  help  in  time  of 
need." 


324  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Can  there  be  mercy  for  a  suicide?  "  Lovejoy 
cried. 

Little  Maggie  Rorer  touched  him  timidly.  "  I 
am  a  suicide  too,  sir,"  she  cried.  "  I  hung  myself 
in  poor  Mamma's  barn.  But  the  dear  Saviour 
has  forgiven  me.  He  is  here  close  by  my  side. 
Sure  if  He  can  love  me,  He  loves  you  too." 

It  was  then  that  I  got  my  first  whiff  of  Rorer 
coming.  Maggie  did  not  seem  to  notice  it.  Per- 
haps she  never  had  been  so  keenly  conscious  of 
the  beast  in  him  through  that  particular  sense. 
I  felt  that  time  was  pressing  and  suggested  a  cir- 
cle of  prayer.  "  What !  Here  in  the  open  lodge 
chamber?  "  Wilkinson  exclaimed  tremblingly,  and 
for  a  moment  I  feared  he  would  change  persons 
again.  "  My  brother!  "  I  cried  in  alarm,  "  when 
you  truly  repent  you  will  chose  the  most  open 
place  in  hell  to  pray  in.  And  when  you  have 
prayed  your  way  back  to  God's  heart  again,  you 
will  be  ready  to  stand  there  and  let  all  hell  know 
you  are  a  Christian." 

"  But  the  lodge !  "  Wilkinson  whispered.  "  Al- 
ready I  can  see  their  attention  turning  this  way. 
Pretty  soon  old  Mack  will  be  onto  us  and  he'll 
turn  perdition  lose,  but  what  he'll  down  us  all." 

"  So  much  the  better ! "  I  declared  stoutly. 
"  Quick !  There  isn't  a  minute  to  lose !  Down 
before  God!" 

So  we  four  souls  bowed  low  there,  clinging  to- 
gether in  the  semi-darkness,  while  danger  mut- 
tered and  tiptoed  around  us.     But  God  made  a 


PRAY  OR  FAINT 

calm  for  some  moments  just  about  our  souls,  and 
I  said  to  Wilkinson,  "  You  begin !  " 

"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  coward ! "  Wilkin- 
son began.  "  Oh  God,  I'm  such  a  chump !  I'm 
the  fellow  that  was  afraid  and  went  and  hid  his 
talent  in  the  earth.  God,  I'd  have  been  saved 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  if  I  had  dared  to 
call  my  soul  my  own,  and  let  Christ  save  it.  It 
wasn't  what  I  knew  was  right,  but  it  was  what 
the  other  fellows  wouldn't  laugh  at  that  I  chose  to 
do  and  chose  to  be.  And  when  little  Brother 
Prester,  here,  found  his  way  to  hell,  where  I  have 
been  serving  out  the  sentence  of  an  ex-saloonkeep- 
er these  many  years,  and  when  he  came  and  told 
me  I  could  still  repent  and  find  my  mother's  God ; 
and  when  I  told  him  I  was  sorry  for  my  sin,  and  I 
repented  and  God  spoke  peace  to  my  soul,  then  the 
first  minute  I  found  myself  alone  with  the  boys 
again,  I  went  back  on  my  Saviour.  I  took  my 
old  man  down  from  the  cross  where  he  had  ought 
to  have  staid  crucified  with  Christ,  and  I  stuck 
him  up  in  front  of  me  for  a  mask,  because  I  was 
ashamed  to  let  the  fellows  know  that  I  had  got 
religion.  Oh  God!  if  there  is  mercy  for  a  con- 
temptible backslider  and  turncoat  like  me,  please 
for  Jesus'  sake,  take  me  back  and  try  me  over 
again  just  this  once.  Put  me  in  the  middle  of 
the  searchlight  blaze  of  hell  and  give  me  a  chance 
to  witness  to  the  boys  that  Jesus  died  for  me. 
But  oh,  Christ !  don't  leave  me !  Stay  by  my  side 
and  keep  me  from  getting  scared  again.     Never 


326  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

mind  how  long  I  may  have  to  stay  in  hell,  never 
mind  if  old  Mack  says  a  charm  over  me  that  locks 
me  up  in  the  ante-room  ten  thousand  years;  only 
keep  me  true  to  God,  and  in  wonderful  mercy 
bring  us  all  home  to  heaven  at  last  for  Jesus'  sake, 
Amen." 

It  was  now  Love  joy's  turn,  but  when  he  tried 
to  speak  his  soul  began  sobbing  like  a  child. 
"  Dear  Christ,"  he  said  at  last,  "  it's  me  praying 
in  hell.  I  never  thought  I  could,  but  I  am  pray- 
ing now.  Oh  Christ,  I  cannot  stand  it  any  long- 
er to  be  far  from  You.  I  have  tried  many  other 
experiments,  now  let  me  try  what  prayer  can  do 
for  a  wilful,  reckless  self-murderer  like  me.  Oh 
Jesus,  can  You  save  a  suicide  from  hell,  and  not 
encourage  other  worsted  sinners  on  earth  to  throw 
up  the  sponge  as  I  did?  Ought  You  not  to  make 
a  dreadful  example  of  me,  to  keep  others  from 
doing  as  I  did?  Ought  You  not  to  send  me  back 
to  haunt  the  earth  and  tell  every  would-be  suicide 
that  it  means  an  eternal  loneliness  and  a  doom  of 
separation,  and  a  changeless  fate  of  vain  regret 
to  embezzle  the  sacred  trust  of  living  God  has 
given.  God  knows  I  have  suffered,  but  not 
enough  to  atone  for  my  sin.  Eternity  in  hell 
could  not  make  up  for  it.  Oh  crucified  Saviour, 
let  me  cast  my  load  of  guilt  on  You.  Help  me 
to  dare  to  take  the  boon  of  pardon  only  on  Your 
merit,  and  because  Christ  has  suffered  all  the  pen- 
alty for  me.     Oh!  can  I  get  back  to  Clara  and 


A  CONVERTED  SUICIDE  327 

Mother?  Can  I  make  up  to  them  for  all  of  it  in 
some  way  through  the  eternity  that  still  lies  be- 
fore? How  I  will  love  God  for  it!  How  I  will 
love  this  dear  brother  that  tried  to  save  me  from 
despair  long  ago  in  Tippleton,  and  now  he  has 
come  to  try  and  save  me  even  in  hell.  Oh  God, 
You  know  I  never  hated  anybody  in  my  life.  I 
never  gave  a  hard  word.  I  never  meant  to  injure 
anyone.  But  I'm  not  proud  of  that ;  for  by  gen- 
tleness I  wounded  those  who  loved  me  that  much 
more  deeply.  Oh  God,  I'm  so  sorry!  For 
Christ's  sake  forgive  me,  just  to  let  me  show 
everybody  that  I  am  sorry.  Maybe  that  will  be 
the  best  way  to  treat  a  suicide  after  all.  Make 
me  such  an  example  of  redeeming  mercy,  such  a 
miracle  of  grace,  that  I  can  go  up  and  down  in 
hell,  as  long  as  perdition  lasts,  to  tell  lost  souls 
that  Jesus  pardoned  me  and  therefore  He  can  save 
and  pardon  anybody.  Help  me  to  bring  ten  mil- 
lion suicides  to  glory.  That  will  be  so  much 
better  than  leaving  them  in  hell.  No  matter 
how  much  pain  it  costs  me!  I  have  thrown  away 
every  precious  thing  that  God  ever  gave  me ;  now 
help  me  to  throw  my  own  wretched  self  away 
even  into  the  arms  of  Jeus.  God  bless  Dominie 
Prester  and  this  little  girl  that  says  Jesus  has 
found  her,  although  she  was  a  suicide  too.  Great 
God!  do  not  let  them  come  to  harm  for  coming 
back  here  for  us.  Help  us  to  stand  whatever 
trial  may  be  coming  and  pull  us  out  of  this  old 


328  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

pseudo-Masonic  net  of  Satan,  and  help  us  to 
pull  poor  old  Uncle  Linas  Godson  out  with  us 
too,  for  our  precious  Saviour's  sake,  Amen." 

Then  we  knew  that  Godson  and  Galpin  and 
Willoughby  were  there  with  us  too.  Not  as  yet 
in  our  circle  of  prayer,  but  hesitating  and  almost 
persuaded. 

"  Go  on  praying,"  I  said.  "  There's  no  time 
for  argument  now."  We  did  not  continue  pray- 
ing one  at  a  time,  but  all  four  together  at  one 
moment  in  unison,  each  making  his  own  plea,  yet 
following  the  prayers  of  the  others  and  saying 
amen  to  each  simultaneous  petition.  Lovejoy  and 
Wilkinson  prayed  for  the  two  who  had  been 
their  neighbors  in  Tippleton.  I  prayed  for  the 
conversion  of  my  old  Churchville  neighbor,  Gal- 
pin; Maggie  prayed  for  her  father.  His  scent 
was  now  so  strong  that  she  must  have  been  con- 
scious of  his  approach.  I  think  God  must  have 
curtained  us  with  a  little  mist  of  darkness  like 
the  pillar  of  cloud  in  the  rear  of  the  Israelites, 
for  although  men  and  demons  seemed  to  be  stir- 
ring angrily  all  about  us,  none  as  yet  seemed 
quite  to  find  us  in  their  hatred.  The  three  who 
had  been  drawn  by  our  sympathetic  interest  in 
their  salvation  neither  knelt  with  us  at  first  nor 
did  they  scoff  or  turn  their  backs  upon  us.  Gal- 
pin was  the  first  to  yield.  "  I  was  never  inside 
a  prayer  meeting  in  my  life,"  he  said,  "  but  I'm 
damned  forever  if  I  don't  join  this  one."  So  he 
bowed  before  God  with  us  and  began  trying  to 


SURROUNDED  329 

pray.  We  put  our  embrace  around  him,  encour- 
aging his  faltering  petitions,  and  redoubling  our 
entreaties  for  the  other  two.  Presently  Uncle 
Linas  also  bowed  low  with  us.  It  was  atonishing 
to  hear  this  chaplain  and  past  chaplain  of  devil- 
worship  drawing  near  to  God  in  penitent  prayer. 
Habitual  oaths  rose  to  utterance,  and  were 
changed  to  humble  confessions  of  wrong  doing. 
Jumbles  of  ritual  melted  into  outpourings  of  gen- 
uine entreaty.  In  all  my  experience  of  revivals,  I 
had  never  known  anything  like  this.  Two  sui- 
cides, a  murderer,  a  former  saloonkeeper,  an  old 
drunkard  steeped  in  sin,  and  I,  the  chief  est  sinner 
of  them  all,  having  so  lately  fallen  from  the  dig- 
nity of  a  child  of  heaven  into  unseemly  anger, 
we  mingled  our  prayers  and  our  confesions,  cling- 
ing together  and  praying  for  one  another,  with 
danger  lowering  around  us,  and  a  terrible  com- 
pression of  secret  power  holding  us  in  even  from 
the  freer  air  of  the  outside  hell  itself.  Willough- 
by  still  lingered  near,  uncommitted.  Suddenly 
the  full  glare  of  the  lodge  room  was  turned  on. 
The  Noble  Grand  was  at  hand  well  aroused.  We 
stood  revealed  to  thousands  of  foes  shocked,  out- 
raged, indignant  to  find  us  there  conducting 
a  prayer  circle  of  penitents  involving  prominent 
members  in  the  center  of  Mystery  Lodge  of  the 
Masonic  Order  of  hell. 

Willoughby's  beak  snapped  together  audibly, 
and  he  disappeared  in  the  crowd  which  was  clos- 
ing in  upon  us.     Apparently  it  was  to  be  some- 


330  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

thing  like  a  college  rush.  Up  from  beneath, 
down  from  above,  in  from  all  sides  our  foes  came 
at  us. 

"  Hang  together,  and  keep  on  praying,"  I 
counselled.  "  There  is  no  other  hope  for  us 
now." 

The  shock  of  their  impact  was  beyond  calcu- 
lation. The  weight  of  some  tens  of  thousands  of 
spirits,  human  and  satanic,  converging  their  rage 
and  hatred  upon  us,  almost  threatened  to  crush 
out  our  existence.  Then  there  came  a  twisting 
and  grinding  action.  By  scorn,  by  ridicule,  by 
threat,  by  taunt,  by  jibe,  by  sneer,  by  seduction, 
by  reproaches,  by  blandishments,  by  corruption, 
by  intimidation,  by  solicitation,  by  misrepresenta- 
tion, by  every  possible  appeal  to  cupidity,  or  im- 
pulsion of  fear  and  pain,  they  endeavored  to 
wrench  us  apart,  to  tear  my  converts  away  and  to 
scrape  me  with  torture.  Long  since  I  had  learned 
to  find  some  relief  from  the  painfulness  of  the 
rub  of  souls  in  hell,  by  raising  a  little  prayer  for 
each  soul,  thus  yielding  to  its  self-seeking  mo- 
mentum, and  going  a  little  way  with  it  in  a  pity 
so  unsought,  uncomprehended,  and  unappreciated 
as  to  be,  perhaps,  of  little  avail  for  the  sentient 
object  upon  which  it  was  bestowed,  but  availing 
somewhat  nevertheless  as  a  lubricant  and  air-cush- 
ion to  spare  its  author  personally  a  little  of  the 
bump  and  friction  of  such  association.  But  now 
the  rub  of  rough,  raw  souls  came  as  fast  and 
furious  as  a  storm  of  sand,  and  the  roar  of  their 


COMRADES  IN  DANGER  331 

imprecations  was  like  that  behind  Niagara.  Still 
we  could  hear  each  other  pray,  and  with  power 
of  love  mightier  than  hate,  we  clung  to  one  an- 
other and  to  God.  When  one  seemed  about  to 
be  dragged  away,  we  others  would  twine  all  our 
prayer  and  sympathy  about  that  one.  So  we 
were  strengthened  in  our  hold  upon  God  by  our 
concern  each  for  the  other,  and  soon  we  found  we 
could  meet  our  swarming  foes  with  a  little  fire 
of  pitying  intercession,  crying  "  Father,  forgive 
them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do ! "  singling 
out  individuals,  as  fast  as  we  could  recognize 
them,  as  special  objects  of  appeal.  God's  grace 
was  being  made  sufficient  for  us,  and  I  wondered 
to  see  my  companions  growing  in  grace  under  this 
strange  trial.  Already  they  were  no  longer  babes 
in  Christ,  but  able  to  stand  together  in  His 
strength,  and  to  look  grave  danger  manfully  in 
the  face.  If  one  of  us  had  for  a  moment  given 
place  in  his  soul  to  anger  or  fear,  I  believe  he 
would  have  been  torn  from  us  and  trampled  un- 
derneath a  mass  of  satanic  hoofs.  By  every 
hook  that  might  catch  and  drag  or  tear,  our  per- 
secutors endeavored  to  divide,  that  they  might 
conquer  us.  I  felt  particularly  pained  for  little 
Maggie;  for  Rorer  would  clutch  at  her  by  every 
handle  of  her  love  and  fear,  and  when  foiled  in 
each  attempt,  would  beat  at  her  in  a  revulsion  of 
fury.  The  others  faced  more  numerous  antag- 
onists in  all  their  vast  acquaintance  of  lodge  mem- 
bers bent  now  upon  preventing  apostasy  from  the 


332  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

order.  All  the  secret  terrors  of  the  lodge-room 
were  unloosed  to  put  a  strain  upon  them.  Mc- 
Gammon  seemed  ubiquitous.  Whenever  we  could 
catch  a  glimpse  through  the  mass  of  nearer  foes, 
he  could  be  distinguished  inciting  this  one  and 
that  to  personal  attack;  while  back  still  further 
the  great  Father  of  evil  hovered  and  planned  and 
lowered  with  a  scowl  that  obscured  the  universe. 

Hours  lengthened,  apparently,  into  days.  The 
confusion  of  so  many  encounters,  the  weight  and 
oppression  of  so  great  a  multitude  of  foes  ren- 
dered it  hard  to  keep  track  of  the  passage  of 
eternity.  The  throng  about  us  grew  more  and 
more  vast,  as  we  could  readily  perceive,  each 
member  of  it  being  transparent.  The  news  of  so 
strange  an  occurrence  had  no  doubt  e'er  this  sum- 
moned together  almost  the  whole  membership  of 
the  order.  We  were  almost  suffocated  in  the  close 
atmosphere  of  their  narrow  spite,  their  bigotry  of 
evil.  The  hot  vapour  of  so  many  sourly  fer- 
menting spirits  piled  together  would  have  scalded 
us  but  for  the  constant  refreshing  inrush  of  the 
Spirit  of  grace  into  our  panting  souls.  Per- 
haps if  we  had  at  first  prayed  less  eagerly  for  our 
own  deliverance,  the  trial  might  have  been  shorter, 
for  it  was  noticeable  that  when  we  began  to  pray 
that  God  would  keep  us  there  until  we  could  con- 
vert many  more  of  them,  and  when  we  began  to 
plead  with  them  to  cast  aside  the  madness  of  re- 
bellion against  God,  and  flung  out  our  repeated 
testimony  of  His  forgiveness  and  power  to  save, 


A  HERALD  OF  DELIVERANCE       333 

the  rage  of  some  began  to  change  to  intelligent 
curiosity,  piqued  with  amazement  at  our  en- 
durance. The  din  of  their  exasperation  grew  less 
confusing.  Then  I  distinguished  something 
from  far  away  which  made  my  soul  leap.  "  Com- 
rades," I  exclaimed,  some  one  is  coming  to  our 
rescue !  "  It  was  like  the  tapping  upon  the  rock 
walls  of  an  exploded  mine  which  tells  the  prison- 
ers caught  in  its  inner  chambers,  slowly  filling 
with  choke  damp,  that  men  are  working  day  and 
night  to  clear  away  the  wreckage  and  reach  them. 
Only  these  raps  were  in  regular  order,  with  some 
meaning  unknown  to  two  of  us.  Presently  a 
slight  disturbance  was  noticeable  far  back  at  the 
edge  of  the  lodge  space.  Some  spirit  was  elbow- 
ing its  way  through  that  dreary  mass  of  soul- 
less souls,  expostulating,  giving  passwords,  grip, 
signals,  disarming  suspicion,  dodging  some  blows, 
meeting  threats  with  bland  assurance,  wedging  its 
way  inch  by  inch,  turning  its  angle  of  least  re- 
sistance toward  any  little  crack  between  varied 
facets  of  many-shaped  opponents,  slipping  this 
way  and  that,  deaf  to  imprecations,  obtuse  to 
frowns  and  scowls  alike,  until  it  approached  near 
enough  to  beckon  to  us,  as  it  struggled  in  inch 
by  inch  against  ever-increasing  odds. 

"  Albert ! "  I  exclaimed,  for  it  was  Detwiler 
himself.  "  How  did  you  dare  to  do  it  ?  How 
did  you  get  them  to  let  you  in  ?  " 

But  my  recognition  at  once  increased  the  hos- 
tility of  those  about  him.     With  cries  of  "  Trai- 


334  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

tor !  Renegade !  Turncoat ! "  lodge  members 
both  human  and  diabolic,  turned  upon  him  with 
concentrated  fury.  It  began  to  look  doubtful  if 
he  would  survive  to  reach  us,  or  would  perhaps 
be  overborne  and  hustled  away;  but  he  signaled 
to  us  bravely  in  the  midst  of  his  superhuman 
struggles.  "  Help  is  coming,"  he  cried  in  gasps. 
"  They  are  praying  their  way  in.  They  will 
stave  a  hole  in  and  come.  This  hard-shell  old 
cave  of  Satan  can't  keep  them  out.  They  will 
win  their  way  in  and  save  you.  Never  mind 
about  me,"  he  cried  again  more  faintly  when  he 
saw  us  reaching  out,  as  it  were,  bare  arms  through 
flames  to  draw  him  in  to  us ;  "  only  tell  Alice  I 
did  my  best." 

But  we  were  not  to  lose  our  brave  herald  of 
deliverance:  like  a  rushing,  mighty  wind,  like  a 
draught  through  some  sudden  opening,  an  influ- 
ence from  far  without,  swept  in  through  the  mob 
about  us,  driving  it  apart  like  chaff.  It  swept  the 
breathless  but  radiant  Albert  fairly  into  the  arms 
of  our  grateful  love  and  brought  to  our  cogni- 
zance a  peal  as  of  march  music  set  to  the  twenty- 
fourth  Psalm  coming  nearer,  nearer,  nearer, 
seeming  to  strike  awe  and  terror  into  the  souls  of 
our  opponents,  but  thrilling  our  own  spirits  with 
an  ecstacy  of  greeting.  There  is  no  homesick- 
ness like  that  for  heaven,  and  no  gladness  of 
homecoming  like  that  of  turning  your  faces  heav- 
enward after  hard  service  in  hell.  You  may  try 
to  think,   gentle  listener,  but  really  you  should 


RESCUED  335 

go  through  it  yourself  to  know  how  we  felt  as 
our  rescuers  swept  down  the  broad  lane  of  ap- 
proach which  the  Almighty  One  opened  for  them 
through  thick  hell.  Soon  we  began  to  recognize 
traits  of  each  soul,  Father  and  the  one  Albert  told 
us  was  Deacon  Spindler,  with  the  two  strangers 
whom  Father  had  won  in  his  mission  at  Jero- 
boam's Holl  where  there,  led  by  the  dusky,  hell- 
born  guide  who  had  first  conducted  me  from  para- 
dise. There  was  Albert  Junior,  with  all  his  broth- 
erhood of  the  heavenly  vision.  And  there  was 
Mother  right  from  heaven,  Jeanie  and  Joy,  and 
Thoughtful,  with  his  brothers,  besides,  also,  little 
Truth  and  Abigail,  and  the  Middler,  and  Content, 
her  youngest  great-grandchild.  There  was  Love- 
joy's  Clara  with  his  mother,  also  Mrs.  Rorer  and 
the  praying  mothers  of  Godson  and  Wilkinson. 
A  number  of  heaven's  great-hearts  were  in  the 
party,  including  General  Booth  and  Jerry  McAu- 
ley.  They  were  accompanied  by  several  score  of 
angels,  a  squad  of  Cromwell's  Ironsides,  some  of 
Constantine's  Christian  legionaries,  and  even  by 
Paul  himself,  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 
None  of  us  needed  introduction ;  for  in  a  flash 
each  knew  the  story  of  the  other.  Some  of  us 
forgot  our  first  reception  in  heaven  in  the  glad- 
ness of  this  meeting.  The  people  of  hell,  driven 
asunder  and  held  back,  as  the  waters  of  the  Red 
Sea  were,  long  ago,  gazed  from  either  side  with 
such  vision  as  each  may  have  had,  forgetting 
hostility  in  their  wonder  and  wistfulness.     Per- 


A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

haps  the  most  touching  sight  of  all  was  that  of 
Lovejoy  with  the  two  women  who  loved  him  most, 
the  century  heart-ache  of  heaven  and  remorse  of 
hell  mingling  and  melting  into  the  joy  of  forgive- 
ness and  of  love's  sure  triumph  over  pain.  They 
touched  each  other  almost  timidly  in  their  tender- 
ness hardly  able  to  speak  at  first.  Maggie 
Rorer  and  her  mother  also  clung  to  each  other, 
while  in  gratitude  they  could  not  speak.  After 
a  while  they  both  began  peering  wistfully  into  the 
murkiness  around,  as  if  in  the  hope  of  catching 
some  glimpse  of  the  one  who  had  wronged  them 
most  and  thus  had  become  the  chief  object  of 
that  deathless  capability  of  forgiving  which 
yearns  in  the  female  breast.  But  Rorer  must 
have  hidden  himself  behind  some  screen  of  obdu- 
rate hate.  The  only  individual  standing  out 
clearly  just  then  from  the  hell-crowd  all  about 
was  the  Noble  Grand  Master  McGammon.  He 
was  discernible  making  passes  in  the  air ;  as  if  en- 
deavoring to  weave  some  new  spell  of  mystery 
which  might  avail  to  prevent  our  return  to  the 
open  hell,  and  so  to  the  free  heaven  beyond. 

The  meeting  of  Joy  and  Albert  seemed  almost 
too  sacred  for  our  participation.  "  This  is  the 
real  hero  of  the  day ! "  I  exclaimed,  drawing  him 
to  our  family  group ;  "  This  is  our  brave  de- 
liverer, who  brought  to  us  the  first  message  of 
hope." 

"  And  he  has  been  wondrous  faithful  to  me  in 
my    mission    among    the    submerged    churches," 


THE  PRODIGAL  HUSBAND        337 

Father  testified,  "  He  staid  by  me,  when  he  was 
longing  to  go  to  his  wife  and  children.  He  stood 
with  me,  when  all  around  but  these  two  converts 
were  hostile.  He  turned  back  into  hell  at  the 
first  warning  brought  by  our  guide,  here,  that 
Nathaniel  was  in  danger." 

Albert  trembled  visibly  as  his  wife  came  to  his 
side. 

"  My  cousin,  my  husband !  "  she  exclaimed,  "  I 
am  proud  of  you !  " 

"  And  can  you  take  me  with  you,  and  love  me," 
he  asked  hesitatingly.  "  Can  you  love  me  as  — 
as  you  love  Nathaniel?  " 

"  Albert  "  Joy  answered,  "  God  gave  us  to  each 
other  as  husband  and  wife  on  earth,  and  when 
I  promised  many  years  ago  to  love  and  cherish,  I 
meant  it  not  just  till  death  should  part  us,  but  I 
meant  it  for  always.  In  heaven,  you  know,  we 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage.  We  are 
free  to  love  one  another,  just  as  love  draws  most 
strongly,  even  as  the  angels  of  God  do.  You 
will  alwa}7s  be  different  to  me  from  any  other  man 
in  the  world.  Brother  Nathaniel  can  never  take 
your  place  with  me." 

"  But  you  and  he  have  been  together  so  long," 
Albert  questioned.  "  You  have  been  growing 
together  in  heaven,  while  I  have  been  growing 
the  other  way  in  hell." 

Joy  checked  him  gently,  "  Do  not  pain  your- 
self thinking  of  that  any  more,  dear,"  she  said. 
"  You  are  so  changed  now,  so  glorified !     We  can 


A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

have  our  wooing  all  over  again.  You  do  not 
know  how  glad  I  have  been,  and  how  eager  to 
catch  up  with  you,  since  Father  Prester  showed 
you  to  me  going  on  before  us  here.  You  are  the 
same,  and  yet  so  new  to  me;  and  I  have  been  a 
widow  so  long  in  heaven !  " 

"  That  would  be  the  hardest  thing  for  you  to 
forgive  and  forget  I  reckon,"  Albert  said,  "  that 
I  never  seemed  really  to  care,  all  our  married 
life,  whether  we  should  be  united  in  heaven  or 
not." 

"  I  never  stopped  praying  for  you,"  Joy 
answered.     "  I  haven't  yet." 

Albert  spoke  with  deep  emotion.  "  It  will  be 
the  thing  for  me  to  aim  at  for  eternity,"  he  de- 
clared, "  to  give  God  a  chance  to  answer  your 
prayers."  "  You  know,  Alice,"  he  continued, 
"  I  am  just  beginning  to  be  anything  at  all,  or 
really  to  have  an  ambition  to  be  something  definite 
some  day.  I  wonder  now  how  you  could  try  so 
patiently  all  your  married  live  to  pin  your  love 
to  me,  when  you  could  hardly  hold  me  still  long 
enough  in  any  one  character  to  pin  anything  to. 
But  when  I  gave  what  there  was  of  me  to  God, 
here  in  hell,  under  the  spell  of  a  far  vision  I  had 
of  you  that  came  when  Nat  prayed  for  it  at  the 
Christian  Science  meeting  —  and  when  I  was  born 
again  and  began  to  have  a  fixed  life,  and  God 
melted  me  down  and  ran  me  into  His  mould,  to 
shape  me  just  to  be  one  person  and  not  a  dozen, 
or  a  score  by  turns ;  why  ever  since  that  time  my 


COMPANIONSHIP  OF  THREE      339 

dearest  human  hope  has  been  to  be  admitted  some 
day,  by  God's  great  mercy  in  Christ,  into  the 
circle  of  your  friends  in  heaven.  I  don't  want  to 
bother  you  with  the  recollection  that  we  were  once 
husband  and  wife.  I  can  hardly  ever  expect  to 
be  as  much  to  you  as  some  others;  but  I  would 
like  so  much  just  to  be  near  you  and  our  children 
quietly,  and  watch  your  happiness,  and  sometimes 
have  you  notice  me  as  a  friend." 

But  Joy  would  not  agree  to  this  at  all.  "  I 
shall  be  proud  to  let  every  one  know  that  you  are 
my  husband,"  she  said,  "  and  how  nobly  you  have 
won  your  way  back  to  me  from  hell.  And  the 
other  women,  seeing  you,  will  be  stirred  to  keep 
on  praying  for  their  poor,  lost  husbands.  Our 
Albert  too  will  be  so  proud  and  glad  to  introduce 
you  to  our  new  friends  and  to  have  the  old  friends 
know  that  you  have  come  at  last.  You  can  never 
know  how  glad  our  boy  was,  or  how  glad  he  made 
me,  when  he  came  for  a  little  while  to  tell  me  of 
your  conversion." 

"  And  father "  Albert  Junior  added,  "  you 
will  find  our  friendships  different  in  heaven. 
Sometimes  taking  one  more  into  the  circle  only 
makes  love  stronger  and  dearer  with  the  others. 
When  I  came  to  heaven  so  early  from  the  earth- 
life,  I  found  Mamma  and  brother  Nathaniel  de- 
voted to  each  other;  for  his  Jeanie  had  not  come 
yet ;  but  they  seemed  to  be  really  happier  still  to- 
gether after  I  joined  them,  and  we  three  have  been 
truly  company  for  each  other  ever  since." 


340  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Yes,  and  we  will  love  our  brother  Nat  more 
dearly  for  finding  you,"  Joy  added. 

For  myself,  my  exultation  was  chastened  with 
a  feeling  of  embarassment,  especially  in  meeting 
Jeanie  and  Joy  and  Mother,  such  as  I  had  not 
yet  known  in  the  spirit  life. 

"  Do  not  caress  me,"  I  entreated.  "  until  you 
have  reflected  again  upon  my  course  in  hell." 
Then  I  showed  it  all  to  them  carefully  and  in 
detail,  particularly  my  encounter  with  the  Sa- 
tana  in  the  guises  of  the  sister  socialist  and  of 
the  mother  angel.  "  Am  I  pure  enough  for  your 
kisses,"  I  asked,  "  when  I  twice  so  nearly  received 
the  kiss  of  pollution  and  death  ?  " 

"  But  they  only  drew  me  closer.  "  Dear  boy  " 
Jeanie  said,  "  I  told  you  not  to  come  in  here  with- 
out me.  Promise  never  to  go  anywhere  in  hell 
again  without  your  girl  to  protect  you  from  that 
dreadful  woman ! " 

"  I  think  you  would  be  wise,  hereafter,  to  take 
Jeanie  with  you  as  she  says,  my  son,"  Mother 
counselled.  "  She  will  be  a  protection  to  you. 
You  know  you  could  never  estimate  the  profes- 
sions of  a  plausible  female." 

But  Joy  said,  even  with  heart-tears,  "  We  are 
so  glad!  so  glad!  dear  brother,  so  glad  you  were 
not  lost  to  us !  And  we  will  love  you  so  dearly 
hereafter;  that  no  matter  where  you  go,  you  can 
never  be  lonely  again.  Our  love  will  radiate,  and 
reach  you,  and  warm  your  heart  even  out  on  the 


TWO  UNWORTHY  SINNERS        341 

edge  of  the  universe,  searching  some  bleak  corner 
of  hell." 

I  have  thus  narrated,  separately  and  in  detail, 
the  greetings  of  a  few  crowded  moments.  We 
were  so  happy  now,  that  we  found  it  hard  to  hold 
ourselves  down  in  hell.  Only  Galpin  and  Godson 
hesitated  about  the  propriety  of  their  seeking  to 
enter  heaven  as  yet. 

"  What  sort  of  a  figure  would  I  cut  in  heav- 
en ?  "  Galpin  asked.  "  I  never  went  to  church, 
I  suppose,  twenty  times  in  my  life.  I  don't 
know  how  to  act  among  pious  people.  I'm  not 
fit  for  their  company.  The  ushers  would  be 
nervous  to  see  me  around,  and  I'd  scare  the  choir 
so  they  couldn't  sing.  A  mission  is  the  only 
place  for  me  —  something  rough  and  tumble,  like 
we've  just  been  through.  I  think  I'd  better  go 
and  look  up  Alf.  Tyson,  and  three  or  four  other 
men  I  sent  here  before  their  time.  I'd  better  be 
making  it  up  to  them  helping  them  to  find  Christ 
and  the  way  out.  Maybe  after  I've  been  praying 
in  hell  as  long  as  I've  been  blaspheming  and  tear- 
ing things  loose,  I'd  feel  more  decent  and  respect- 
able to  come  and  knock  at  heaven's  gate.  And 
I'd  feel  better  if  I  could  take  some  poor  devil  with 
me.  I've  been  dragging  other  people  down  all 
my  life,  and  by  God's  help  I'd  like  to  pull  some- 
body up  with  me.  I  tell  you,  I'm  not  fit  for 
heaven  yet;  I'm  only  fit  to  go  up  and  down 
in    hell,    roaring    it    out    that    I'm    saved,    and 


SM  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

if  God  can  save  me,  He  can  save  the  Devil 
himself.  Then  when  Jesus  has  helped  me  to  get 
a  crowd  of  penitent  murderers  and  hell-toughs  like 
myself,  together;  so  that  I'm  sure  of  congenial 
company  in  heaven ;  I'll  ask  the  Lord  to  let  us  go 
softly  up  to  the  mourner's  bench  in  glory,  and 
cover  our  sight  there  for  a  hundred  years  or  so, 
until  we  feel  more  fit  to  stand  up  and  shake  hands 
before  the  altar." 

Uncle  Linas  showed  a  similar  reluctance.  "  I 
fear  me,"  he  said,  "  that  I  would  feel  less  at  ease 
in  heaven  than  of  yore  in  the  Tippleton  Presby- 
terian Church.  I  paid  my  pew  rents  there,  and 
I  scarce  feel  that  I  was  more  of  a  hypocrite  than 
some  others.  But  what  right  would  I  have  in 
heaven  —  a  poor  old  soak,  bloated  with  vice  and 
tainted  rotten  with  devil-worship  ?  " 

"  To  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave 
He  the  right,  ifrwrlav  to  become  the  Sons  of  God," 
Father  quoted,  interrupting  him. 

"  I  know  well  that  He  has  done  it,"  Godson 
answered  humbly,  "  I  am  God's  son  at  last,  glory 
to  Jesus!  But  am  I  fit  indeed  for  my  Father's 
house?  Can  I  spring,  even  at  a  bound,  from 
Satan's  altar  to  heaven's  home?  Would  it  not 
behoove  the  Father  rather  to  find  some  place  for 
me  outside  the  door  half  way  up  the  lane  of  glory, 
where  I  could  sometimes  point  out  the  way  to 
other  sons  coming  back  home  ?  " 

"  So  the  prodigal  son  thought,"  Albert  Junior 


FROM  HELL  TO  HEAVEN?        343 

suggested.  "  He  said,  '  make  me  as  one  of  thy 
hired  servants.'  But  the  Father  found  no  place 
for  him  short  of  the  dining  hall,  with  the  best 
robe,  and  the  ring,  and  the  sandals." 

"  And  can  we  go  straight  to  heaven?  "  Lovejoy 
asked,  incredulous  for  gladness.  "  Can  a  suicide 
repent,  and  go  straight  from  hell  to  heaven? 
Can  we  stay  right  with  you,  and  never  be  sepa- 
rated any  more?  " 

"  Jesus  said  to  the  malefactor  on  the  cross 
beside  Him,  '  this  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
paradise  '  "  Father  quoted  again. 

"  And  He  says  s  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you,' "  Jeanie  suggested."  "  Him  that 
cometh  unto  me,'  Jesus  said, '  I  will  in  no  wise  cast 
out.' " 

"It  isn't  just!"  exclaimed  Galpin,  "It  isn't 
fair,  it  isn't  right,  and  it  can  never  be.  You 
good  people  have  been  serving  God  all  your  days, 
and  it  took  you  a  life  time  on  earth  to  get  ready 
for  heaven.  We  on  our  side  have  been  hustling 
for  the  devil  more  than  two  hundred  years.  It 
ain't  a  square  deal  to  let  us  strike  our  job  and  go 
over  to  your  Master  and  get  the  same  reward  as 
you." 

"  The  man  that  sought  for  laborers  for  his 
vineyard  gave  each  of  the  eleventh  hour  men  a 
penny,  the  same  as  the  others,"  Mother  contended 
loyally. 

"  That's  charity :  the  bargain  with  the  first  hour 


344  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

men  was  business,"  Galpin  protested,  "  I've  read 
my  Testament  some,  if  I  haven't  been  going  to 
church." 

"  Brothers,"  Father  declared.  "  You  are  all 
three  somewhat  disposed  to  limit  the  grace  of 
God.  There  is  unbelief  still  lurking  in  your 
hearts.  Certainly  it  is  charity.  Heaven  is  all 
charity.  '  The  wages  of  sin  is  death ;  but  the 
gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.'  If  it  wasn't  a  free  gift;  you  and  I 
would  never  have  it.  You  may  even  stay  in  hell 
and  work  for  God  twice  as  long  as  you  have  served 
Satan,  but  that  would  not  buy  for  you  the  right 
of  one  square  inch  of  heaven.  Neither  can  you 
become  fit  for  heaven  by  centuries  of  service  out- 
side. The  regenerating  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
upon  our  natures  alone  fits  us  for  heaven.  The 
time  element  may  or  may  not  enter  into  the 
problem.  You  may  be  born  again  with  long 
throes,  or  with  none.  It  is  the  fact,  and  not  the 
process  which  counts.  Only  this  is  essential,  '  Ye 
must  be  born  again ! '  " 

"  Where,  then,  do  we  attend  to  reaping  that 
which  we  have  sown  ?  "  Uncle  Linas  asked,  "  If 
faith  can  save  us  so  instantly  and  completely 
from  all  the  consequences  of  evil  doing,  does  it 
not  make  void  the  law  ?  " 

"  I  don't  believe  any  man  anywhere  did  a  mean 
thing,  but  what  he's  got  to  suffer  for  it,"  Galpin 
agreed.  "  I  expect  to  smart  for  all  my  devil- 
ment, and  enjoy  heaven  afterwards." 


GRACE  — NOT  PURGATORY       345 

"  If  that  is  true"  Lovejoy  argued,  "  You  and 
I  will  never  see  heaven !  hell  couldn't  last  long 
enough  for  you  and  me  to  reap  all  the  crop  of 
wild  oats  we  have  put  in." 

"  Brothers,"  Father  again  counseled  them,  "  I 
perceive  that  Satan  is  endeavoring  to  gain  a  hold 
again  upon  your  thoughts,  to  weigh  you  down 
with  dispair.  None  of  us  can  atone  for  his  own 
sin.  None  of  us  need  bear  the  judgment  of  it  or 
pay  the  debt  of  it,  or  work  out  the  sentence  of  it, 
in  any  way.  Jesus  paid  it  all.  '  All  we  like  sheep 
have  gone  astray  and  God  hath  laid  on  Him  the 
iniquity  of  us  all.  He  was  wounded  for  our 
transgressions ;  He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities ; 
the  chastisment  of  our  peace  was  upon  Him,  and 
by  His  stripes  we  are  healed.'  Thus  '  He  is  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only, 
but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world !  The  way  to 
God's  heart  and  the  way  to  heaven  is  open  to 
each  of  us.  It  leads  past  the  cross  of  Calvary. 
If  there  remains  still  an  inevitable  after-math  of 
regret  and  pain  and  loss  as  the  lingering  conse- 
quences of  evil  doing;  deem  it  not  your  punish- 
ment, Jesus  bore  all  that;  it  is  God's  chastening, 
by  which  He  means  to  help  you  to  remember  and 
leave  sin  alone  forever.  Heaven  is  different  to 
each  of  us.  Each  heart  has  its  j  oys  there,  and  its 
sorrow.  You  will  not  there  grieve  less  for  your 
wrong  past,  but  grieve  more.  You  will  not  grow 
less  eager  to  make  amends,  but  more  eager. 
There  are   centuries   of  reparation   still,  before 


346  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

you,  men.  But  all  this  will  only  mellow  and 
sweeten  your  heaven.  It  will  not  exclude  or  shut 
you  out;  but,  the  rather,  lead  you  deeper  in. 
Only  you  must  be  found  ever  in  Christ,  not  having 
your  own  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law,  but 
the  righteousness  which  is  by  faith  in  Him." 

As  father  spoke  the  souls  of  our  converts  began 
to  glow  with  unutterable  hope.  "  Come  along 
with  us  to  heaven  men,"  I  urged  them.  "  Your 
place  has  been  waiting  for  you  these  million  years. 
God  needs  you  there  just  now  to  tell  your  wonder- 
ful story  of  redeeming  grace,  and  to  fire  the 
hearts  of  thousands  to  come  and  seek  for  lost  souls 
in  hell.  You  need  heaven  too.  You  need  its 
friendships,  its  joys,  its  worship.  You  need 
heaven's  schooling,  and  when  you  come  back  here 
from  heaven's  own  theological  seminary,  you  will 
come  as  the  very  priests  of  salvation,  clothed  with 
power  to  bring  God  near  to  others." 

Even  while  I  spoke  we  were  floating  up  and 
out,  in  glad  assent.  Father  started  a  hymn,  and 
we  all  joined  with  him  in  singing  — 

"  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And  that  Thou  bid'st  me  come  to  Thee, 
Oh  Lamb  of  God,  I  come. 

"  Just  as  I  am,  and  waiting  not, 
To  rid  my  soul  of  one  dark  blot. 
To  Thee,  whose  blood  can  cleanse  each  spot, 
Oh  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 


THICK  HARVESTING  347 

Hell  closed  in  behind  us  thick  with  wondering, 
wistful  souls.  They  seemed  to  stretch  out  hands 
after  us,  not  to  restrain,  but  as  if  longing  to  be 
lifted.  "Look  Father!"  I  cried,  "how  white 
hell's  fields  are  to  the  harvest ! " 

"  Yes  my  son,"  he  answered,  "  Let  us  pray  the 
Father  that  He  may  send  forth  many  laborers 
into  His  harvest." 

Only  McGammon  seemed  to  be  straining  im- 
potently  to  bar  our  progress.  At  last  we  passed 
him  at  the  riven  boundary  of  his  secret  domain, 
casting  spells  and  imprecations  after  us. 

"  Ungrateful  Reverend  Sir,"  he  called  to  me 
in  passing,  "  Never  again  shall  you  enter  this 
sacred  inclosure,  whose  trust  you  have  thus  basely 
betrayed !  " 

"  Most  Noble  Grand  Master,"  I  replied, "  When 
God  wills,  I  will  come  again  and  bring  with  me  five 
thousand  evangelists  of  the  choicest  ex-Masons 
of  heaven." 

Then  we  looked  back  and  could  just  distinguish 
Elder  Smiley  settling  himself  for  a  five  years' 
talk,  in  justice  to  the  remarkable  event  just  wit- 
nessed. 

"Will  hell  really  punish  that  man,"  Jeanie 
queried,  "  so  long  as  he  can  still  keep  on  talking." 

"  Think  what  a  tireless  preacher  he  will  make," 
Mother  answered,  "  when  he  really  becomes  con- 
verted and  gets  to  talking  for  God." 

"  It  seems  almost  heartless  to  go  and  leave  them 
all  here  in  their  sin,"  Joy  declared. 


348  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  We  are  not  the  only  ones  who  have  been,  and 
are,  and  will  be  working  for  God  in  hell,"  our 
swarthy  guide  suggested. 

"  If  we  could  but  show  all  this  company  that 
far  illumination  of  hell's  mission  field  upon  which 
you  were  gazing  in  such  wonder  when  I  came 
down."  Father  returned  wistfully. 

Even  while  he  spoke  the  soft  lights  began  to 
glow  amid  the  gloom.  The  nearest  were  ever  so 
far  away;  yet  they  brought  many  individual 
spirits  into  view  of  those  who  were  working  for 
souls  or  being  drawn  to  Christ.  Here  it  was  a 
single  worker,  there  a  Bible  class  of  a  score,  yon- 
der a  great  audience,  drawn  by  the  Word  amid 
the  inconceivable  vastness  of  pagan  hell. 

In  the  midst  of  the  scene  of  infinite  distances 
thus  presented  to  our  gaze,  and  so  transparently 
irradiant  as  not  to  hide  the  view  of  what  was  be- 
yond, we  beheld  the  vision  of  a  ladder  let  down 
from  heaven,  shaped  in  the  outlines  of  a  cross  with 
One  nailed  upon  it  wearing  a  crown  of  thorns. 
On  this  mystic  ladder  of  a  life  laid  down  for  all 
eternity  angels  of  God  were  ascending  and  de- 
scending from  heaven  to  hell. 

For  a  few  rapt  moments,  this  wondrous,  soft 
illumination  held  our  gaze.  Then,  as  it  faded 
into  darkness  again,  we  each  clasped  strongly  the 
soul's  hand  of  the  other  for  the  thrill  and  the 
sweep  of  the  swift,  sweet  rush  up  out  of  hell's 
murkiness  into  the  unchanged  noonday  glory  of 
heaven's  broad,  glad  day. 


RECRUITING  349 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


I  confess  that  we  enjoyed  rather  a  lazy  while 
after  that  in  heaven.  The  holiday  spirit  was 
strong  upon  us.  It  is  so  sweet  to  feel,  when  one 
has  done  his  best,  and  expended  his  mite  of  force 
to  the  uttermost  for  God,  that  he  may  find  even 
a  sacred  mission  and  obligation  in  rest  and  enjoy- 
ment; and  leaving  the  vast  projects  of  the  uni- 
verse contentedly  in  the  hands  of  their  Originator, 
needs  only  devote  himself,  a  while,  to  absorbing 
all  the  gladness  which  comes  his  way,  while  he 
gives  recuperating  forces  a  chance  to  put  in  their 
full  work  upon  him  and  stores  up  in  every  cell  of 
his  being  sunshine  and  sweetness  for  future  use. 

To  begin  with,  we  were  astonished  by  the  num- 
ber of  people  who  were  watching  to  meet  us,  as  we 
emerged  in  heaven.  Thousands  had  felt  the 
viberation  of  the  ripple  stirred  by  our  rescuing 
party  as  they  went  down  after  us  into  hell,  and 
had  been  praying  for  us  mightily  while  they  were 
gone.  These  set  up  a  shout  of  praise  on  behold- 
ing us,  which  made  heaven's  well-kin  ring,  and 
drew  still  other  hunderds  of  thousands  to  be 
interested  in  our  brands  snatched  from  hell's 
burning.  There  was  joy  that  day  in  the  presence 
of  the  angels  of  God.  The  contrast  of  all  these 
radiant  presences  with  those  among  whom  we  had 
been  moving  so  long  made  us  fairly  laugh  for 
joy.     When   the    Lord   thus    turned    again    our 


350  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

captivity,  we  were  like  them  that  dream.  All 
spirit  faces  turned  toward  us,  were  softened  with 
pity  over  the  ethnological  specimens  grace  had 
wrested  and  rescued  from  hell's  piteous  popula- 
tion ;  yet  thrilled  with  mighty  joy  over  this  earnest 
of  conquests  yet  to  be  won.  We  noticed  just  one 
waiting  soul  whose  aspect  showed  some  discourag- 
ment  of  hope  deferred.  This  was  little  Sadie 
Echols.  She  called  me  one  side  for  a  moment  and 
asked  me  if  I  had  seen  anything  of  Hatchett 
among  the  low  places  of  hell.  I  shrank  unutter- 
ably from  telling  her  now  of  how  I  had  almost 
fancied  I  had  recognized  his  palid  soul  corpse  in 
that  awful  vision  of  the  morgue  of  hell,  seen 
through  the  lense  of  the  She-devil's  soul  at  the 
time  of  my  first  temptation  —  just  a  face  amid 
all  that  writhing  mass,  with  staring  eye-balls  half 
unconscious,  yet  agonized  with  pangs  and  qualms 
of  the  second  death.  "  This  may  have  been  only 
a  fancy,  Sadie,"  I  assured  her  pityingly. 

"  But  will  you  take  me  with  you  the  next  time, 
and  let  me  look  for  him?  "  she  pleaded.  "  Jesus 
brings  the  dead  to  life." 

"  It  depends  upon  your  motive,  sister,"  I 
answered.  "  You  remember  that  this  has  been 
Satan's  snare  for  you  from  the  beginning.  It 
was  your  besottment  of  blind  devotion  to  Hatchett 
which  cost  you  your  childhood's  faith,  your 
innocence  and  virtue,  which  cost  you  a  century  of 
heaven,  and  reduced  you  to  a  jaded  hag  of  perdi- 
tion." 


KINGS  AND  PRIESTS  351 

"  It  isn't  that  now,"  said  Sadie,  "  but  I  am  so 
sorry  for  poor  Hatchett.  Remember  how  near 
you  were  to  that  dreadful  place  yourself.  If 
he  can  only  be  saved;  I  would  be  glad  to  keep 
away  from  him  for  ever;  if  God  said  so." 

"  But  there  would  be  no  need,  dear  friend,"  I 
said.  "  If  you  love  Hatchett  only  to  save  him ; 
your  love  becomes  a  sacred  thing.  In  loving  thus 
you  are  born  of  God.  Go  and  wait  upon  God  in 
prayer  for  your  husband,  and  listen  for  the  signal 
of  our  return  to  hell." 

So  when  we  found  wondering  men  and  angels 
clustering  around  our  converts  we  counseled  them 
to  go  and  tell  their  story  through  heaven. 

"  Interest  as  many  as  you  can  to  seek  for  God's 
call  to  the  work  of  the  Gospel  ministry  in  hell," 
Father  advised,  "  and  wait  the  signal  of  our  re- 
turn. All  are  priests  here :  you  will  find  no  laity 
in  heaven." 

Of  course  there  were  a  lot  of  the  dear  descend- 
ants and  ancestors  in  the  crowd,  and  it  was  pleas- 
ant to  tarry  with  them  for  a  little  family  reunion 
and  old  home  week  of  several  thousand  attendants. 
When  the  last  word  has  been  said,  your  own  are 
nearest.  The  very  oppositeness  of  temperament 
which  so  often  tires  our  patience  in  our  kinsfolk 
rather  endears  them  to  us  in  the  end,  and  their 
society  is  especially  good  for  us  when  we  are  in 
danger,  in  the  company  of  others,  of  being  over 
praised.  After  the  Presters  had  dispersed,  we 
went  to  visit  awhile  with  some  of  Mother's  people 


352  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

and  ran  across  the  Churchville  uncle  —  I  confess 
somewhat  to  our  surprise. 

"  Why  Uncle  Adolphus,"  I  exclaimed,  without 
meaning  to  be  rude,  "  how  did  you  ever  get  to 
heaven?  " 

"  You  were  not  expecting  to  see  me  then  ?  "  he 
asked  somewhat  quizzically. 

"  Oh  I,  might  have  known,"  I  replied,  "  that 
if  there  was  a  good  thing  on  the  market  you 
would  not  fail  to  get  in  your  bid ;  but  I  had  some 
doubts,  I  admit,  of  the  success  of  your  usual 
methods  in  the  particular  matter  of  a  clear  title 
to  mansions  in  the  sky." 

"  Nathaniel,"  he  confessed,  "  do  you  know, 
I  was  perhaps  one  of  the  most  astonished  souls  in 
eternity  when  I  awoke  after  dying,  and  did  not 
find  myself  in  heaven?  I  looked  around  me  and 
rubbed  my  eyes  (metaphorically)  to  find  myself 
in  such  unexpected  surroundings.  I  was  in 
church,  but  I  knew  from  the  start  something  was 
wrong.  After  being  trustee  of  the  Churchville 
Congregational  Church  for  nearly  forty  years, 
and  treasurer  of  the  same  for  half  that  period, 
attending  church  Sunday  by  Sunday  throughout 
eleven  pastorates,  I  fancy  I  know  what  is  what  in 
churches.  The  order  of  the  service  in  this  case 
was  all  correct  enough ;  and  yet  something  seemed 
most  astonishingly  strange  about  it.  And  before 
it  was  half  over  I  said  to  my  soul.  "  Phew ! 
there's  something  rotten  in  this,"  and  I  got  out  of 
there.     I  visited  several  churches  like  those  Mr. 


OUT  OF  RECKONING  353 

Prester  tells  us  of,  but  each  one  seemed  a  little 
more  topsy  turvy  than  the  one  before.  They 
frightened  me.  This  can't  be  heaven,  I  thought. 
It  isn't  even  as  decent  as  Churchville.  I  felt  sick 
of  the  whole  thing.  I  looked  around  to  see  if 
anyone  was  keeping  store;  but  I  didn't  find  any. 
And  then  I  began  to  inquire,  just  as  I  would  in 
any  other  strange  place,  if  there  was  a  Masonic 
lodge.  So  I  got  into  one  and  I  found  some  old 
acquaintances ;  but  the  deviltry  that  was  going  on 
beggars  description.  I  took  one  of  them  one  side 
and  asked  him  confidentially,  *  Say,  is  this  hell  ?  ' 
Then  he  told  me  it  was,  but  I  mustn't  say  any- 
thing about  that.  I  concealed  my  agitation  with 
a  great  effort,  realizing  that  I  had  to,  and  pulled 
myself  together  as  best  I  could,  got  in  the  center 
of  the  lodge-room,  made  my  signal  as  uncon- 
cernedly as  I  knew  how  to  the  past  Worshipful, 
gave  the  proper  password  at  the  entrance,  and 
thanked  my  stars  when  I  got  out  of  the  lodge  un- 
hindered. After  that  I  wandered  in  desert  places 
and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  one ;  for 
I  was  afraid  of  them  all.  I  began  to  ask  myself 
seriously  how  this  had  all  come  about.  I  had 
been  going  to  church,  and  lodge,  and  town 
council,  and  village  improvement  society,  and 
keeping  store  the  greater  part  of  my  life  without 
reproach.  I  had  made  money  during  the  war, 
and  had  kept  adding  to  it  ever  since.  I  had  lived 
in  a  brick  house  and  been  one  of  the  foremost  men 
in  Churchville.     I  had  bowed  in  prayer  in  public, 


354  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

and  occasionally  led  in  prayer  at  the  prayer- 
meeting.  Now  it  began  to  work  in  my  mind, 
there  in  the  wilderness  of  hell,  that'  I  had  never 
really  prayed.  I  thought  that  over  for  ten  years 
and  more,  and  then  began  to  call  upon  God,  sure 
enough.  I  told  Him  what  I  had  frequently  de- 
clared in  prayer-meeting;  that  I  meant  to  make 
heaven  my  home.  I  had  failed  on  this  somewhat, 
and  I  wished  to  know  why;  for  I  didn't  mean  to 
relinquish  the  attempt  as  long  as  there  seemed  still 
any  use  in  trying.  I  prayed  in  this  way  for 
ninety  years,  without  achieving  any  results.  By 
this  time  my  nerve  began  to  give  out,  and  at  last  it 
began  to  come  over  me  very  gradually  to  ask  if 
there  might  not  be  something  radically  wrong 
with  Adolphus  himself.  No  one  came  to  talk  with 
me  about  it.  The  idea  slowly  evolved  within  my 
own  mind.  I  think  it  was  nearly  thirty-five  years 
more  before  it  got  full  hold  of  me.  And  then  one 
day,  standing  afar  off  on  the  edge  of  hell,  and 
not  daring  as  it  were  to  lift  up  so  much  as  my 
eyes  to  heaven,  the  impulse  came  over  me  to  smite 
upon  my  breast  and  cry,  '  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner ! '  That  was  where  this  churchman  got 
religion  at  last,  and  I  have  been  truly  on  my  way 
to  heaven  ever  since.  I  no  longer  prayed  to  reach 
heaven,  however.  I  prayed  to  get  right  with 
God,  and  when  I  got  right  with  God  all  through, 
I  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  found  myself  in 
heaven." 

"  Uncle  Adolphus,"   I  exclaimed  rapturously, 


MUCH  NEEDED  ADVICE  355 

"  I  was  always  proud  of  you ;  uncomfortable  as 
I  often  felt  with  you ;  but  to-day  I  glory  in  you, 
and  I  love  you." 

It  was  this  uncle  who  first  suggested  to  my  mind 
the  propriety  of  approaching  Doctor  Christman, 
on  the  subject  of  inaugurating  the  great  Simul- 
taneous Campaign  in  hell.  He  listened  while  I 
unfolded  my  crude  ideal  of  what  ought  to  be 
done,  and  how  it  ought  to  be  done  in  evangelizing 
the  nether  world;  and  then  he  replied  with  some- 
thing of  old-time,  enthusiasm-squelching  poise  of 
thought. 

"  My  dear  nephew,"  he  said,  "  your  plan  is  not 
as  far  off  the  trail  as  some  I  have  heard  you 
broach;  but  you  must  try  and  not  feel  offended 
if  I  suggest  that  some  responsibile,  well  balanced 
leader  of  men  like  John  Wesley,  or  your  great 
evangelist  leader,  Christman,  ought  to  be  found 
to  take  it  up,  and  organize  it,  and  make  a  success 
of  it.  The  mix-up  you  butted  into  with  McGam- 
mon  and  with  that  devil-woman  shows  that  you 
have  learned  little  since  you  were  in  Churchville 
about  the  art  of  really  accomplishing  things. 
You  mean  well,  Nathaniel,  but  oh!  you  are  still 
such  a  blunderbuss !  " 

It  was  Uncle  Adolphus,  too,  who  told  me  how 
we  ought  to  find  Harry.  "  Mark  my  words  "  he 
said,  "  Harry  Prester  is  somewhere  out  in  that 
no-man's-land  of  hell  where  I  have  been  so  long. 
But  you  won't  get  to  him  by  praying  for  him. 
At  least  you  want  to  do  it  under  your  breath.     If 


356  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

anybody'd  tried  to  pray  their  way  to  me  those  first 
ninety  years,  it  would  have  pushed  me  off  like 
the  negative  pole  of  a  magnet.  Get  into  his 
world  of  things.  Think  about  wheels,  move  in 
wheels ;  keep  your  eye  on  everything  that  wheels. 
All  of  you  wheel  together ;  until  you  draw  him  in, 
or  roll  out  nearer  to  him." 

So  we  did,  all  the  kinsmen  on  both  sides  who  had 
known  Harry,  also  some  of  his  wife's  people  and 
Albert  Detwiler  and  Joy  and  some  other  old 
friends.  We  separated  so  far  that  we  could  just 
circle  and  touch.  We  prayed  very  softly  for 
God's  help;  but  we  talked  to  each  other  only  of 
wheels.  As  we  went,  we  contemplated  the  swift 
cycles  of  the  spheres;  the  planets,  turning  upon 
their  orbits  and  coursing  round  our  sun,  Jupiter 
at  the  rate  of  29,000  miles  an  hour,  Venus,  76,000 
miles  an  hour,  Mercury  103,000  miles  an  hour, 
also  the  still  vaster  sweep  of  twin  suns  circling  one 
around  another,  and  the  rush  of  comets  from 
system  to  system.  We  put  our  minds  solely  upon 
the  mechanism  of  the  universe,  together  with  the 
latest  mechanical  inventions  of  created  minds. 
We  had  kept  this  up  for  several  months,  and  had 
thus  traversed  a  considerable  portion  of  the  stel- 
lar universe  (if  immensity  may  be  spoken  of  as 
divided  into  portions)  and  were  returning  back- 
ward upon  our  track  for  more  careful  searching, 
when  Mother's  circle  touched  mine  and  she  said 
very  softly,  "  I  have  found  him."  We  let  the 
word  pass  out  quitely  to  one  and  another,  until 


A  DREADFUL  EXAMPLE  357 

we  had  drawn  our  band  together  in  a  narrowing 
hollow  sphere  with  poor  Harry  at  the  center. 
But  we  ourselves  found  it  necessary  to  move  very 
rapidly  as  a  company;  for  my  poor  brother  had 
apparently  gone  entirely  motion  mad.  Whether 
by  the  dizziness  of  watching  so  many  and  such 
varied  movements  of  the  universe,  or  by  the  Amer- 
ican spirit  of  emulation  and  self-confidence 
wrought  up  to  an  immoderate  extreme,  we  found 
our  brother  tearing  along  in  an  irresponsible  hy- 
perbola, tumbling  over  and  over  with  inconceiva- 
ble rapidity  as  he  swept  onward  toward  infinity. 
We  were  at  our  wits'  end  how  to  attract  his  atten- 
tion; for  he  was  liable  to  go  right  through  any 
one  of  us,  or  the  whole  line  of  us,  if  we  got  in 
his  path,  without  pause  or  recognition.  Indeed, 
none  but  a  mother's  discerning  glance  would  have 
recognized  Harry  himself  in  his  cyclonic  flight; 
but  having  him  once  pointed  out,  we  gradually 
became  sure  of  him  by  the  whirling  of  wheels  in 
his  soul. 

"  Stop  him !  detain  him !  head  him  off !  "  poor 
Father  cried,  growing  excited. 

"  How  can  we  do  it?  "  came  from  all  sides  si- 
multaneously.    Then  Joy  made  a  suggestion. 

"  Let's  all  love  him  at  once  with  all  our  might," 
she  shouted. 

We  put  her  counsel  into  action  and  kept  it  up 
persistently,  as  we  accompanied  him  in  his  mad 
career.  After  a  considerable  time,  we  noticed  a 
slowing  down  in  both  his  external  motions  as  well 


358  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

as  in  the  clock-work  within  his  soul.  We  re- 
doubled the  pull  of  our  anxious  affection  with  in- 
creasing effect ;  until,  to  our  intense  relief,  Harry 
came  to  a  full  stop  and  began  to  blink  around 
upon  us,  confusedly  in  the  grey  twilight  of  his 
non-ethical  world.  He  was  indeed  a  pitiable  ob- 
ject, when  still  enough  for  critical  inspection. 
His  internal  bearings  were  badly  worn,  and  his 
running  gear  more  or  less  wobbly  throughout. 
His  higher  spiritual  nature  had  been  stowed  and 
cramped  away  into  so  small  a  receptacle  for  so 
long  a  period  that  it  was  only  with  delicate  care- 
fulness and  microscopic  attention  we  could  draw  it 
out  and  appeal  to  it. 

"  My  long  lost  boy,"  mother  exclaimed,  "  don't 
you  know  me?  " 

Harry  panted  and  wheezed  and  finally  stuttered 
out,  "  Is  it  you,  mother?     Do  you  care?  " 

"  Of  course  we  care,"  Mother  and  his  wife  cried 
both  at  once;  but  his  mind  seemed  still  confused; 
so  we  all  said  it  together  quite  distinctly,  which 
appeared  to  startle  him  into  clearer  consciousness. 

"  We  are  all  loving  you,  friend  Harry,"  Joy 
said.  "  We  have  always  been  interested  in  you ; 
we  long  to  see  you  saved." 

"  It  seems  strange  you  never  pulled  that  lever  in 
me  before,"  Harry  rejoined. 

"  We  tried  all  along  to  let  you  see  it,  old  fel- 
low," I  remonstrated,  "  but  we  very  rarely  seemed 
to  get  your  attention ;  and  when  we  did,  the  strong 
momentum  of  your  nature  seemed  to   fling   our 


COOPERATIVE  EVANGELISM         359 

proffered  expression  of  concern  for  your  eternal 
welfare  back  into  our  faces." 

"  You  ought  to  have  climbed  on  the  tender, 
applied  air  pressure  to  my  rear  driver,  and  pushed 
on  my  throttle  until  you  got  me  reversed,"  he  pro- 
tested. 

"  Thank  God  we  have  overtaken  you  this  time," 
Father  panted,  still  somewhat  winded  by  his  exer- 
tions ;  "  but  if  grace  does  not  accomplish  your 
conversion  now,  I  doubt  if  we  will  ever  succeed  in 
bringing  you  to  a  standstill  again." 

"  I  don't  believe  I  could  go  much  further  with- 
out a  breakdown  anyhow,"  Harry  admitted,  look- 
ing himself  over. 

"  Then  come  away  from  all  this,  my  boy,"  ad- 
vised Uncle  Adolphus ;  "  live  for  something  that 
pays.     Get  religion.     Aim  for  heaven." 

So  we  appealed  to  him  from  all  sides.  For  the 
first  time  in  our  whole  experience  of  him  we  seemed 
really  to  have  his  attention  and  to  arouse  him  to 
concern  for  his  higher  well-fare.  Only  he  seemed 
somewhat  puzzled  to  realize  what  we  wished  him 
to  do.  All  religious  lines  of  thought  had  been 
so  long  left  entirely  on  one  side  from  his  course 
in  life,  that  it  seemed  hard  for  him  to  turn  to  the 
simplest  ethical  or  spiritual  conception. 

"  I  wish  we  had  Strong  here  to  sing  to  him 
*  Life  is  Like  a  Mountain  Railway,' "  I  suggested 
to  Jeanie.  "  It  might  express  salvation  in  a  ter- 
minology which  would  convey  more  meaning  to 
him." 


360  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  I'm  with  you  my  hearty,"  came  a  cheering 
greeting  from  behind,  as  the  exuberant  singer 
came  into  our  group  with  an  easy  swing.  He 
gave  us  the  sensations  of  shaking  hands  rapidly 
all  around  and  having  clapped  Harry  on  the  back, 
psychologically  speaking,  he  said,  "  Now  my  man, 
what's  the  difficulty  here?  Are  your  friends 
cross-circuiting  you  and  getting  your  ideas  in  a 
tangle?  Suppose  you  let  me  sing  you  a  song 
that  may  light  up  the  track  ahead  a  little  bet- 
ter." 

Then  he  sang  the  same  dear  old  lyric  with  which 
he  somehow  always  managed  to  get  hold  of  men : 
a  rich  collection  of  railway  metaphors  made  up 
of  curves,  tressels,  grades,  throttle  and  rails  with 
a  union  station  at  the  end  representing  heaven. 
It  seemed  to  me  to  contain  almost  too  much 
imagery  for  its  solid  content  to  convert  anyone: 
yet  Strong  appeared  never  to  use  it  without 
effect.  Harry  was  silent  for  a  while  after  he 
concluded,  then  he  said,  rather  wearily  looking 
around  on  us  all,  "I  give  in.  Take  me  in  tow, 
if  you  want  to.  Show  me  the  way,  and  by  God's 
help  I'll  follow  it.  I've  got  to  pull  in  somewhere 
and  make  repairs,  that's  certain." 

So  we  won  Harry  to  Christ  and  heaven.  Grad- 
ually, with  infinite  pains  —  a  little  pull  here  and  a 
lift  there  —  and  when  we  could  feel  sure  that  the 
dear  fellow  was  really  converted  and  on  the  nar- 
row way  that  leads  to  life,  and  we  were  congratu- 


CONVINCED !  361 

lating  each  other  before  separating,  I  ventured  to 
suggest  to  Brother  Strong  and  the  rest  that  we 
ought  to  undertake  other  similar  endeavors. 
"  This  is  cooperative  evangelism,"  I  declared. 
"  This  is  what  hell  needs.  Surely  there  are 
enough  of  us,  with  God's  blessing,  to  make  a  suc- 
cess of  the  enterprise  if  we  would  go  at  it." 

"  You  would  empty  heaven  into  hell,"  Strong 
objected. 

"  To  bring  half  of  hell  back  with  it,"  I  con- 
tended. 

"  He  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth  bearing 
precious  seed,"  Father  recited,  "  shall  doubtless 
come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves 
with  him." 

"  Soon  heaven  would  be  doubly  glad  and  busy," 
Jeanie  declared,  "  taking  care  of  its  sheaves." 

"  Say,  Brother  Strong,"  I  asked,  "  haven't  you 
enjoyed  this  bit  of  personal  work  with  my  brother 
more  than  anything  you  have  experienced  since 
you  came  to  heaven?  " 

Strong  could  not  deny  that  he  had.  "  It  was 
immense,"  he  declared,  "  was  that  hell  ?  "  "  It 
was  a  part  of  the  City's  great  '  Without '  "  Fa- 
ther explained :  "  it  was  the  hell  of  banishment 
from  heaven." 

The  Singer  jumped  visibly.  "  Then  I  was  in 
hell  and  didn't  know  it ! "  he  exclaimed. 

"  Never  mind,  Brother  Strong,  you  were  there 
on  a  noble  errand,"  Jeanie  said  comfortingly. 


662  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  But  your  brother-in-law  should  have  been 
damned  forever,"  he  gasped,  "  and  here  I  have 
been  helping  to  save  him !  " 

"  You  know  that  there  must  have  been  some- 
thing wrong  with  your  doctrine,  do  you  not,  dear 
brother  ?  "  Joy  asked.  "  And  when  we  gather 
you  will  go  with  us,  will  you  not,  like  an  Orpheus 
of  redemption,  to  sing  the  love  of  Jesus  into  the 
hearts  of  ruined  men  and  women  in  hell?  " 

"  God  help  me ! "  exclaimed  the  evangelist  in 
deep  agitation :  "  surely  if  it  wasn't  His  will,  it 
wouldn't  work.  Why,  I'd  rather  put  in  a  thou- 
sand years  in  a  succession  of  such  thrills  as  this, 
than  to  be  acknowledged  the  leading  soloist  of 
the  skies." 


EUTHANASIA  363 


CHAPTER  XIX 

After  that  we  had  another  little  rest,  visiting 
with  Jeanie's  people,  and  some  of  the  old  Serenity 
Folks.  Two  brighter,  more  heartsome  country 
women  than  Jeanie's  mother  and  grandmother  I 
have  not  found.  Neither  had  ever  really  exper- 
ienced old  age  of  soul,  and  Mrs.  Whitney,  the 
grandmother,  especially,  had  found  little  need,  as 
so  many  of  us  do,  who  have  lived  beyond  our 
threescore  and  ten  years  of  mortal  life  —  of  grow- 
ing young  again  in  heaven.  I  can  never  forget 
the  sacred  week  which  the  precious  lady  occupied 
in  dying.  Blind  with  age,  sitting  half  upright 
in  bed,  without  an  ache  or  ailment,  save  that  she 
felt  tired  and  slept  often,  she  concerned  herself 
affectionally  for  the  comfort  of  each  caller,  think- 
ing to  the  last  day  more  for  others  than  for  her- 
self. "  Yes,  this  is  the  good-by  time,"  she  would 
say  cheerily  to  one.  "  I  never  had  anything  like 
it ;  so  it  is  easy  to  tell."  "  When  I  was  a  girl  of 
sixteen,"  she  said  to  another,  "  I  had  a  week  in 
bed  with  a  little  spell  of  measles.  Except  when 
the  children  came,  that  is  the  only  thing  I  can  re- 
member like  this.  So  I  know  it  is  the  beginning." 
She  never  spoke  of  it  as  the  end,  but  only  as  the 
beginning.  So  when  I  found  her  in  heaven,  I 
noticed  less  change  in  her  soul  than  in  anyone. 
"  Nathaniel,  I'm  glad  you've  come,"  she  said, 
kissing  me  without  any  ado.     "  Your  baby  twins, 


364  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Hope  and  Joy,  and  I  have  been  looking  for  you." 
She  was  then  a  hundred  and  forty  years  young, 
and  as  fresh  and  sweet  as  before  she  had  the 
measles.  Brother  McDaniel,  Jeanie's  father,  also, 
was  there  and  as  great  a  character  as  ever,  even 
more  guileless  in  his  sagacity.  "  You'll  find  me 
changed  a  bit,  my  boy,"  he  said  in  greeting. 
"  For  one  thing,  when  I  talk  to  God,  I  make  each 
prayer  a  little  different  now." 

In  heaven  they  had  all  gotten  into  touch  again 
with  the  old  Serenity  folks,  Elder  and  Mrs.  Jobes, 
Doctor  McCorkle,  the  '  McWhorter  Girls '  of  un- 
certain age,  and  a  good  many  more  of  the  sainted 
country  people.  There  they  were  living  as  neigh- 
bors still  in  much  the  same  unruffled,  easy  way, 
visiting  back  and  forth,  and  getting  together  for 
worship  somewhat  as  of  yore.  "  Heaven  is  a 
grand,  wide,  stirring  world,"  Miss  Christine  Tin- 
ker would  say.  "  It's  rare  to  take  a  trip  about 
now  and  then.  But  for  solid  quiet  in  the  long 
reach,  give  us  our  quiet  neighborhood,  with  the 
old  friends  all  about." 

So  when  Jeanie  and  I  made  them  this  little 
restful  visit,  after  Harry's  conversion,  it  was  not 
so  greatly  different,  after  all,  from  our  silver  wed- 
ding trip  back  to  Serenity ;  only  there  were  fewer 
gaps  in  the  community  life.  We  hardly  hoped  to 
persuade  any  of  these  placid  souls  to  undertake 
with  us  an  enterprise  so  novel  as  a  mission  to 
hell,  and  we  looked  forward  rather  to  a  sweet,  ob- 
jectless time  in  their  midst,  with  leisure  to  frolic 


OLD  COMRADES  AND  NEW       365 

with  those  blessed  sinless  twins,  Hope  and  Joy, 
our  babies  forever  more.  But  Mrs.  Rorer  and 
Maggie  had  been  there  already,  and  there  was 
hardly  a  family  which  was  not  thinking  with 
yearning  of  some  loved  one  lost  to  heaven.  There 
is  no  family  spirit  stronger  than  that  of  the 
Scotch-Irish  Pennsylvania  farmer's  household, 
and  we  found  strong  spirits  among  them  already 
girding  up  their  loins  for  the  pilgrimage  to  hell. 
Their  eagerness  encouraged  us  to  look  for  other 
groups  of  old  friends  of  former  charges,  and 
stopping  places  in  life's  pilgrimage,  in  the  hope 
of  gaining  other  recruits ;  and  soon  to  our  great 
rejoicing,  we  had  begun  to  book  quite  a  little 
company  of  volunteers  for  our  coming  invasion 
of  the  Satanic  Kingdom.  There  were  Truth  Cus- 
tis  and  Captain  Burroughs,  Brother  Moss,  and 
Mrs.  Moss,  the  Colonel  and  his  wife  from  Oldboro, 
Aunt  Lossie  and  Laura  from  Ainslie,  Brother 
Rankin,  and  Manie,  and  her  poet  brother,  Castle, 
from  the  colony,  Brother  Sweet  and  Elder  Billy 
from  Mount  Latitude,  Miss  Mag  and  little  Dor- 
ritt  from  the  Valley  of  Summer,  Captain  Town- 
send  from  Seacong,  Doctor  Cottrell  and  Brother 
Birch  from  Churchville,  my  young  elder,  Irving 
True  from  Tippleton,  with  Grandma  True,  Mrs. 
Frank  True,  John  A.  and  John  P.,  Miss 
Janette  and  Elder  Baillie  and  Superintendent  Rice 
of  the  Rescue  Mission  in  Mill  River,  the  dear  ex- 
horters  from  Our  Father's  House  in  Worcester, 
Brother  Adair  and  Father  Mueller  from  Colby. 


S66  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Brother  Robbins  and  Grace  led  the  group  from 
the  Good  Hope  Church,  my  first  charge,  and  of 
course  almost  the  entire  membership  of  my  last 
charge,  the  church  of  the  Aeonian  Redemption 
were  eager  to  accompany  us ;  these  last  a  splendid 
circle  of  earnest,  intelligent  men  and  women,  many 
of  them  better  preachers  than  I  —  just  a  bit  Bos- 
tonian  still,  to  be  sure  (even  heaven  could  not 
quite  eclipse  that  distinction)  —  but  true  hearted, 
clear  souled,  and  deliciously  ready  for  the  next 
new  thing.  No  doubt  some  of  my  listeners  have 
met  one  or  another  of  these  old  earth-friends  of 
ours  whom  I  have  mentioned.  To  our  mind,  heaven 
would  not  be  so  interesting  without  them.  These, 
with  hundreds  just  as  dear  from  my  all-too-nu- 
merous pastoral  charges  of  earth  rallied  to  our 
endeavor  and  began  praying  for  special  equip- 
ment of  grace  to  help  them  in  their  mission  to  hell. 
On  earth  Jeanie  had  kept  in  touch  with  many 
of  these  dear  people  by  correspondence  with 
choice  spirits  of  pastorates  left  behind;  and  we 
had  often  declared  that  if  we  could  only  assemble 
them  all  together  into  one  congregation,  only 
heaven  could  be  better.  "  Isn't  it  wonderful ! " 
Jeanie  exclaimed  now,  "  that  our  dream  is  coming 
true  at  last,  and  all  for  an  excursion  to  hell ! " 

Besides  these  we  found  some  of  my  college 
chums  and  seminary  mates  like  Jim  Morris,  and 
Stryker  and  Golucky,  and  Tommy  Cottrell,  also 
hundreds  of  brothers  beloved  in  the  ministry. 
Our  enterprise  was  growing  to  astonishing  pro- 


PERPLEXING  SUCCESS  367 

portions.  Each  recruit  was  interesting  others, 
and  soon  strangers  hailing  from  other  localities, 
even  of  other  climes  and  ages  and  planets,  were 
coming  to  enlist  for  the  enterprise.  Last  but  not 
least  of  these  was  Christian  Israel  just  from  earth. 
Workers  already  in  hell  sent  notice  of  their  inten- 
tion to  join  with  us.  I  was  becoming  almost 
frightened  by  the  size  to  which  the  missionary 
party  seemed  likely  to  grow,  and  often  said  to 
Jeanie,  "  We  must  look  Doctor  Christman  up,  and 
put  the  whole  undertaking  into  his  hands  to  be 
organized." 

"  You  are  the  one  who  began  this  particular 
movement,"  Jeanie  would  reply,  "  and  by  God's 
help  you  ought  to  claim  your  job,  and  see  it 
through." 

"  I  might  be  crazed  by  such  a  task,"  I  pro- 
tested. "  Christman  has  had  experience ;  he  has 
native  ability ;  he  is  at  home  with  the  *  simultane- 
ous '  idea.  The  best  I  could  do  would  be  to  turn 
all  these  soul-seekers  loose  in  hell  and  bid  them  go 
as  they  please." 

"  Wouldn't  that  be  the  most  effective  way  in 
the  end?"  Jeanie  protested. 

"  We  would  melt  apart  and  be  lost  to  each 
other,  like  so  many  raindrops  in  the  ocean,"  I 
declared. 

I  wondered  also  to  find  how  much  of  this  in- 
fernal mission  work  had  been  going  on  for  ages 
from  heaven,  and  only  now  when  I  had  come  into 
thorough  heart-sympathy  with  it,  was  it  coming 


368  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

within  my  cognizance  as  a  systematized  part  of 
heaven's  vast  activities.  Especially  among  those 
who  had  died  in  pagan  darkness  had  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  been  progressing  successfully 
for  centuries.  I  was  particularly  interested  in 
the  case  of  those  pagan  and  Judaic  relatives  of 
Paul's  converts  who  had  died  before  the  message 
of  the  gospel  could  reach  them,  and  for  whom 
these  converts  were  accustomed  to  have  themselves 
baptized  vicariously,  believing  that  regenerating 
grace  would  in  some  way  find  them  out  in  the 
spirit  world  in  answer  to  the  faith  of  the  one  who 
had  received  baptism  on  their  behalf  and  in  their 
place.  When  I  found  how  effective  this  ancient 
expression  of  love  and  faith  had  proven  in  a 
number  of  instances,  I  asked  my  friend  Peale  (as 
we  met  and  compared  notes  during  our  furlough) 
why  this  baptism  for  relatives  deceased  in  pagan- 
ism had  never  been  (so  far  as  I  had  ever  heard) 
permitted  to  the  converts  of  modern  missions. 

"  Our  Nineteenth  and  early  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury missionaries  in  foreign  lands,"  he  replied, 
"  recoiled  from  anything  which  squinted  toward  a 
belief  in  future  probation.  They  feared  that  it 
would  '  cut  the  nerve  of  missions.'  " 

"  But  what  is  your  own  conclusion  in  the  case," 
I  asked,  "  established  in  the  increased  light  of  a 
missionary's  observation  in  both  worlds  ?  " 

"  I  am  convinced  of  two  things,  neither  of  them 
clearly  perceived  on  earth  (where  my  actual  ex- 
perience on  the  foreign  field  was  so  brief),"  he 


BAPTISM  FOR  THE  DEAD        369 

answered  confidently.  "  First,  I  believe  the  mis- 
sionaries who,  even  secretly,  cherished  a  hope  of 
a  grander  work  of  redemption  wrought  out  in 
eternity  had  really  more  nerve  for  their  work 
amid  almost  heart-breaking  discouragements  from 
the  inertia  of  paganism.  Secondly,  I  have  over- 
whelming evidence  that  the  contrary  doctrine,  os- 
tensibly set  forth  by  our  orthodox  churches,  of  a 
hopeless  state  of  perdition  for  all  who  had  died 
without  a  knowledge  of  Christ  and  a  pre-mortem 
vital  faith  in  Him  caused  many  a  heathen  mind, 
in  worshipful  attachment  to  its  ancestors,  to  re- 
coil in  horror  from  Christianity.  I  really  believe 
it  would  have  helped  us  to  make  speedier  mission- 
ary conquests  if  we  had  permitted,  as  Paul  seems 
to  have  done,  the  rite  of  baptism  for  the  dead, 
and  if  we  could  have  encouraged  our  converts  to 
hope  that  they  might,  in  the  consistency  of  God's 
love  and  mercy,  be  permitted  to  seek  out  their 
loved  ones  gone  before  into  eternity  with  the  gos- 
pel message  they  had  never  heard  on  earth." 

I  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  the  suggestion 
of  Uncle  Adolphus  that  I  should  interest  Doctor 
Christman  to  drill  and  organize  our  increasing 
mob  of  enthusiasts  for  a  sane  and  well-balanced 
simultaneous  campaign  in  hell. 

"  The  idea  is  an  excellent  one,  Prester,"  Peale 
answered.  "  For  all  you  know,  in  the  largeness 
of  hell,  Doctor  Christman  may  have  already  been 
at  this  favorite  work  of  his  in  that  region  these 
hundred   years.     Certainly   in   our   work   among 


370  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

deceased  heathen  we  would  have  accomplished 
much  less  permanent  advance,  without  a  thorough 
missionary  organization." 

Thus  encouraged,  Jeanie  and  I  prayed  our  way 
to  the  great  evangelistic  captain,  and  said  to  him, 
"  Doctor  Christman,  we  would  like  to  interest  you 
to  take  charge  of  an  impending  simultaneous 
evangelistic  campaign  in  hell." 

Christman  seemed  less  frightened  than  we  had 
feared  he  might  be.  "  I  have  heard  rumors  of  a 
proposed  infernal  propaganda,"  he  said  thought- 
fully. "  I  even  heard  that  my  friend  General 
Booth  is  thinking  seriously  of  marching  his  whole 
Army  into  hell.  But  I  have  never  been  accus- 
tomed to  commit  myself  to  any  venture  without 
a  great  deal  of  preliminary  consideration.  Per- 
haps you  remember  how  long  I  hesitated  before 
engaging  for  the  visit  to  Mill  River. 

"  Doctor,  we  couldn't  blame  you !  "  we  both  ex- 
claimed in  a  breath. 

"  Well,  just  as  in  that  case,"  he  answered,  with 
his  own  smile,  inimitable  in  its  humor  of  triumph 
over  sadness, — "  just  as  in  that  case  of  Mill  River, 
I  would  like  you  to  give  me  some  assurance  of  a 
fighting  chance  for  success  in  this  strange  under- 
taking." 

We  recounted  to  him  something  of  our  own 
experience  in  hell,  and  called  in  Father,  Albert 
Detwiler,  and  Charlie  Love  joy  for  corroberating 
encouragement. 

"  How   many   converts   do  I   understand  you 


APPRECIATION  OF  PREACHING       371 

made,  all  told,  the  two  of  you,  in  the  months  of 
your  endeavor?  "  asked  the  evangelist. 

"  Something  less  than  fifty  in  all,"  we  admitted. 

"  But  if  I  heard  aright,"  Doctor  Christman 
persisted,  "  the  bulk  of  these  were  converted,  not 
so  much  as  the  fruits  of  evangelistic  preaching 
or  of  personal  work,  as  by  a  remarkable  vision 
of  heaven  which  came  unexpectedly  upon  a  gath- 
ering of  Christian  Scientists." 

"  That  is  true,"  I  confessed.  "  Aside  from  this 
wonderful  event,  which  may,  possibly,  never  be 
repeated,  I  won  just  one  convert  by  my  preach- 
ing, and  six  others  by  personal  work." 

"  And  your  father?  "  he  interrogated  again. 

"  Two  by  preaching,"  Father  reported,  "  and 
one  by  getting  myself  condemned  for  heresy." 

"  May  I  ask,  gentlemen,"  Christman  continued, 
"  how  much  gospel  preaching  you  each  did  during 
all  that  time?  " 

Father  explained  that  he  was  preaching  regu- 
larly and  statedly  almost  the  whole  time,  and  I, 
that  I  had  only  found  opportunity  for  one  ser- 
mon. 

"  It  does  not  strike  me,  gentlemen,  on  the  face 
of  your  returns,"  the  evangelist  demurred,  "  that 
hell  is  an  encouraging  field  for  gospel  preaching. 
More  seems  to  have  been  accomplished  by  personal 
work,  and  not  overmuch  by  that." 

"  But  I  realize  that  I  was  preaching  all  the  time 
to  the  wrong  people,"  Father  explained. 

"  And  I  was  exploring  one  of  the  most  hope- 


372  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

less  quarters  of  hell,  and  having  interviews  with 
Satan  and  his  archangels,"  was  my  own  apology. 

The  doctor  turned  to  Father  with  a  sudden 
impulse.  "  Do  you  suppose,"  he  asked,  "  that 
those  interesting  churches  in  hell,  of  which  you 
have  been  telling  me,  might  be  led  to  agree  upon 
an  invitation  and  might  call  for  the  simultaneous 
evangelistic  campaign  to  be  held  among  them? 
Would  this  give  the  movement  a  standing  and 
assumed  basis  of  support  and  of  acceptance 
among  the  people  of  hell  themselves  ?  " 

Father  gave  a  sorrowfully  negative  gesture. 
"  It  causes  me  sincere  regret  to  discourage  that 
suggestion,"  he  replied.  "  My  own  experience 
and  observation  of  these  churches  leads  me  to  fear 
that  they  dread  and  deprecate  and  disapprove 
of  nothing  so  much  as  of  evangelistic  effort  and 
evangelistic  preaching." 

"  You  both  think,  then,"  he  asked  further, 
"  that  it  would  be  better  to  conduct  our  campaign 
entirely  in  the  open  hell,  without  any  attempt 
to  avail  ourselves  of  the  unifying  and  uplifting 
influences  of  the  churches  and  of  the  societies  ?  " 

"  I  think  this  must  have  been  the  providence 
which  was  in  our  mistakes  and  trials,  Nathaniel's 
and  mine,"  Father  answered  humbly.  "  I  think 
we  have  learned  the  lesson  for  you  all  to  make 
heaven  our  only  base,  and  God  and  each  other  our 
only  reliance." 

"  It  has  never  been  my  custom,"  the  evangelist 
mused ;  "  I  have  never  yet  conducted  a  campaign 


WORTH  WHILE  373 

except  upon  a  practically  unanimous  invitation 
of  the  churches." 

"  Please,  then,  send  some  one  else  to  obtain  it 
this  time,"  Father  requested  plaintively. 

"  I  am  only  speaking  of  a  method  which  you 
both  yourselves  practically  employed,"  the  doctor 
argued ;  "  and  if  by  availing  yourselves  of  all 
the  aid  you  could  get  from  churches  and  lodges 
alike,  you  still  found  such  very  moderate  success, 
what  results  can  we  expect  on  an  irresponsible 
sally  into  hell,  uninvited  and  unaccredited  to  the 
people  among  whom  we  plan  to  work  ?  We  might 
win  such  meagre  acceptance  and  bring  back  so 
few  converts  as  to  discourage  future  evangelistic 
efforts  in  those  infernal  regions  for  a  long  time  to 
come. 

"Doctor!"  exclaimed  Lovejoy,  coming  for- 
ward impulsively,  "  you  do  not  need  to  count  your 
converts.  I  have  found  that  one  poor  sinner 
saved  like  me  is  enough  to  bring  joy  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  angels  of  God  more  than  ninety  and 
nine  already  past  the  need  of  repentance." 

"  I  think,  Doctor,"  Father  added,  "  that  if  we 
can  find  ten  thousand  evangelists  ready  to  go  on 
a  mission  to  hell,  and  if  we  can  go  and  work  there 
simultaneously  and  heartily  say  for  ten  years,  and 
can  in  consequence  of  our  united  labors  bring  back 
one  genuine  convert  with  us,  that  would  be  more 
satisfying,  and  more  nearly  worth  while,  and 
would  enrich  God's  universe  with  a  greater  full- 
ness of  joy  and  hope  than  simply  to  spend  the 


374?  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

time  in  cheering  and  in  improving  one  another  in 
heaven. 

"  How  is  it  with  your  own  soul,  Doctor?  "  I 
ventured  to  ask.  "  Are  you  entirely  satisfied  just 
with  the  organizing  of  simultaneous  praise  meet- 
ings in  heaven?  Does  your  soul  never  cry  out 
for  the  strenuous  life,  for  the  glory  and  the  joy 
of  battling  for  souls,  with  which  your  time  was 
so  gloriously  filled  on  earth  ?  " 

"  Prester !  "  Christman  confessed  with  strong 
feeling,  "  do  you  know  I  sometimes  think  of  those 
campaigning  days  almost  with  regret  and  long- 
ing, even  here  in  heaven  ?  " 

"  You  need  not  spend  another  moment  in  re- 
gret," Father  assured  him.  "  Who  knows  but 
that  your  greater  work  as  an  evangelist  captain 
may  be  still  before  you?  We  ask  you  to  take 
charge  of  these  forces  which  are  mustering  for  a 
campaign  of  salvation  in  hell.  Organize,  direct, 
lead  us  on  to  victory  as  you  have  shown  such 
signal  ability  in  doing.  This  is  the  Lord's  Busi- 
ness, brother,  just  as  truly  as  any  he  ever  laid 
upon  your  heart  on  earth." 

I  endeavored  to  follow  up  the  advantage. 
"  Brother  Christman,"  I  said  as  impressively  as 
I  knew  how  to.  ('Brother,'  you  know,  is  the 
large  word  in  heaven,  as  in  the  New  Testament.) 
Brother  Christman,  let  no  man  take  thy  crown." 

He  understood  my  reference  to  the  sermon  he 
sometimes  used,  about  the  second  Thursday  after- 
noon of  a  series  of  meetings. 


INCONSISTENCY  THE  JEWEL        375 

"  Friends,"  he  said  finally,  "  I  appreciate,  and 
am  touched  by  your  thought  of  me  in  connection 
with  this  enterprise.  Let  me  tell  you  in  entire 
frankness  that  I  have  not  infrequently  experienced 
an  impulse  toward  similar  lines  of  endeavor  since 
coming  to  heaven.  I  have  been  deterred  hitherto 
by  an  unwillingness  to  appear  inconsistent.  In 
all  my  preaching  on  earth  I  was  accustomed  to 
appeal  to  men  and  to  warn  them  as  on  their  only 
probation  for  eternity.  I  distinctly  discouraged 
the  hope  of  a  probation  after  death,  in  all  its 
forms.  I  would  have  no  one  on  my  force  who 
showed  any  leaning  to  it.  My  men  all  talked  the 
other  thing.  To  allow  even  the  least  element  of 
such  an  uncertainty  in  our  preaching,  so  it  seemed 
to  me,  would  take  all  the  force  from  the  evangel- 
istic appeal.  Now  for  me  to  turn  in  eternity  and 
to  take  the  lead  in  a  movement  presenting  the  offer 
of  salvation  to  damned  souls  in  hell  would  seem  to 
be  the  height  of  inconsistency." 

"  Pardon  me,  my  dear  brother,"  I  ventured  to 
reply :  "  the  inconsistency,  it  seems  to  me,  is  only 
upon  the  surface.  I  hardly  think  I  ever  heard 
you  say  anything  which  I  have  since  forgotten; 
and  just  now  I  recall  one  of  your  sayings  about 
the  interpretation  of  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son.  You  said  you  had  preached  from  it  occa- 
sionally for  years  as  setting  .forth  the  possibili- 
ties of  man's  repentance ;  but  that  you  had  never 
felt  quite  satisfied  in  your  conception  of  the  para- 
ble, until,  of  late,  it  had  come  to  you  that  its 


376  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

primary  purpose  was  to  set  forth  the  heavenly 
Father's  love.  And  now  how  can  you  look  at  that 
parable  a  moment  in  the  light  of  eternity  and  fail 
to  see  that  it  applies  with  equal  force  to  the 
love  of  our  Father  for  every  poor  prodigal  child 
of  His  in  the  far  country  of  hell  ?  Your  own  dis- 
covery in  the  parable  involves  eternal  redemp- 
tion. Would  it  be  father  love  worth  illustrating 
in  parable  if  it  turned  to  inappeasable  fury  the 
moment  a  sinner  happened  to  stumble  across  the 
morally  accidental  boundary  line  of  physical 
death?  Won't  God  give  every  one  of  His  prodi- 
gals a  fair  and  equal  chance  to  repent  and  come 
back  to  Him?  Did  they  all  have  this  fair  and 
equal  chance  on  earth?  What  other  possible  ob- 
ject can  the  Father  have  in  letting  them  endure 
the  mighty  famine  of  hell ;  but  that  each  may  be 
led  to  come  to  himself  and  say,  *  I  will  arise  and 
go  to  my  Father  ?  ' 

"  Let  me  presume  to  tell  you,  dear  doctor,"  I 
continued,  "  that  no  man  ever  preached  the  gospel 
truly  as  you  have,  without  logically,  if  uncon- 
sciously setting  forth  the  necessity  of  an  aeonian 
redemption.  Consistency?  The  height  of  incon- 
sistency would  be  for  a  preacher  like  you  not  to 
go  on  proclaiming  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ  till  the  last  prodigal  had  come  back  to  his 
Father.  You  remember  Emerson  says  a  foolish 
consistency  is  the  bug-bear  of  little  minds.  Tell 
me,  does  your  heart  never  ache  for  all  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  people  who  listened  to  you 


GOD'S  CONSISTENCY  377 

on  earth,  who  showed  concern,  rose  for  prayers, 
got  half  saved,  and  still  the  thorns  sprang  up  and 
choked  the  word?  Do  you  suppose  God's  heart 
has  no  ache  in  it  like  yours?  Just  let  us  put 
ourselves  in  God's  hands  for  life-saving  use,  until 
the  world's  last  heart-ache  finds  its  only  cure. 
What  a  shame  for  a  man  of  your  ability  and  ex- 
perience to  be  loafing  about  in  heaven,  with  noth- 
ing doing  in  your  own  chosen  line,  when  here  are 
thousands  of  preachers  and  personal  workers 
eager  to  have  you  put  yourself  at  their  head  for 
the  grandest  soul-winning  campaign  you  ever  led ! 
Hell  is  teeming  with  wretched,  despairing  souls, 
half  sick  of  sin,  groping  for  any  ray  of  hope, 
ready  to  catch  at  any  life-line.  It  has  been  dem- 
onstrated that  these  people  can  be  saved.  Here 
are  two  of  them,  and  we  can  bring  you  a  hundred 
more.  If  not  one  known  conversion  from  hell  had 
yet  taken  place,  still  every  consideration  of  rea- 
son, of  equity,  of  pity,  of  religion,  every  worthy 
thought  of  Christ,  the  self -consistent  interpreta- 
tion of  God's  Word,  and  what  seems  to  be  a  truly 
unified  system  of  Christian  doctrine  would  bid  us 
believe  in  its  possibility,  its  God-given  commis- 
sion, its  urgent  claim  upon  our  consecrated  en- 
deavor. If  no  citizen  of  heaven  had  yet  found 
hell,  or  returned  from  there;  the  exercise  of  our 
simplest  intuitions  would  bid  us  set  forth  to  reach 
it  on  a  saving  mission,  as  confidently  as  Columbus 
turned  the  prow  of  his  vessel  westward  to  find  oth- 
er lands." 


378  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

Father  took  up  the  plea  where  I  left  off.  "  For- 
give us,  dear  Brother,  if  we  seem  to  persuade  you 
over  much,"  he  said.  "  Such  all-important  issues 
hang  upon  your  decision !  It  still  seems  to  please 
God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them 
that  believe.  He  still  prefers  to  win  men  through 
men,  and  we  still  have  this  treasure  in  earthen 
vessels,  in  order  that  the  excellency  of  the  power 
may  be  of  God  and  not  of  man.  The  complete 
redemption  of  our  race  waits  upon  the  spirit-filled 
activity  of  redeemed  sinners  like  you  and  me.  God 
has  blessed  your  labor  in  the  past;  but  life  was 
too  short  and  Satan  too  strong  for  all  you  longed 
to  do.  God  would  have  us  complete  in  eternity 
the  task  which  we  could  barely  begin  in  the  mortal 
life.  We  whose  earthly  ministry  has  been  so 
mixed  with  failure  have  the  incentive  of  still  seek- 
ing for  some  late  sheaves  from  the  fields  of  hell ; 
but  one  to  whom  God  has  given  mighty  power  to 
win  souls  has  the  far  nobler  motive  of  responsi- 
bility to  that  self -same  gift;  that  he  may  use  it 
wherever  lost  souls  remain  to  be  saved.  If  you 
cannot,  in  good  conscience,  come  with  us,  broth- 
er, we  will  essay  to  go  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord 
our  God.  We  will  blunder  about,  and  save  such 
as  me  may.  I,  for  one,  cannot  think  strange  of 
your  hesitation ;  having  been  long  withheld  from 
the  work  by  scruples  of  my  own.  But  I  will 
grieve  for  you  and  for  ourselves;  for  you,  that 
you  will  miss  the  crown  of  rejoicing  which  comes 
with  new  conquests;  for  ourselves  that  we  will 


THE  REVIVALISTIC  LONGING        379 

miss  the  confidence  which  trained  and  capable 
generalship  inspires,  as  well  as  the  more  satisfy- 
ing results  which  such  leadership  ensures.  Like 
you,  in  preaching  to  mortal  men,  I  dreaded  to  in- 
spire in  their  breasts  a  hope  of  continued  proba- 
tion beyond  the  grave  which  might  prove  delusive, 
and  leave  the  blood  of  souls  upon  my  head.  I 
fear  still  the  souls  in  hell  we  will  find  altogether 
the  hardest  to  arouse  will  be  those  who  have  pre- 
sumed to  trade  upon  God's  longsuffering  proba- 
tion. But  now  that  I  have  seen  both  heaven  and 
hell,  and  have  become  convinced  of  my  mistaken 
thought  of  God's  severity  in  hopelessly  damning 
men,  I  am  experiencing  a  keen  reaction  of  eager- 
ness for  mission  work  in  hell.  So  we  will  contin- 
ually pray  for  you  my  dear  Doctor,  in  our  scat- 
tered warfare  and  in  our  councils  for  its  main- 
tenance in  the  archenemy's  country ;  we  will  pray 
that  the  doubts  which  cloud  the  issue  may  yet  dis- 
solve away  from  before  your  mental  vision,  and 
that  with  a  fresh  enthusiasm,  reacting  from  long 
waiting,  you  may  yet  come  to  us  in  hell,  commis- 
sioned to  be  our  general;  come  in  the  fullness  of 
the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  —  to  show 
us  how  we  should  preach,  and  how  we  should 
plead,  and  by  what  skilled  tactics  we  may  conquer ; 
come  as  the  chosen  instrument  in  God's  hands  to 
inspire  and  direct  the  mightiest  revival  of  all  his- 
tory, even  among  the  prisoners  of  hell's  own 
world-wide  dungeon." 

But  Christman  rose  to  his  full  height,  with  a 


380  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

strong  gesture  of  dissent.  "  You  need  not  spend 
time  praying  any  longer  for  that,"  he  began,  and 
then  some  strong  emotion  choked  his  utterance. 

"  But  why  not,  Doctor,"  Jeanie  pleaded  in  her 
own  irresistible  way.  "  Are  you  going  to  forbid 
us  loving  you  and  wishing  for  you  to  come  and 
help  us?  Must  we  bear  the  brunt  of  everything 
in  hell,  while  men  like  you  who  ought  to  be  in 
the  forefront  of  our  endeavor,  are  holding  aloof 
from  us  and  showing  that  they  don't  know  what 
to  think  of  our  mission?  Why  cannot  you  let  us 
pray  that  our  Master  will  show  you  and  all  of  us 
His  will  and  give  us  your  grand  help,  if  it  is  His 
will?" 

Our  leader's  soul  filled  with  tears  as  he  tried 
to  answer.  "  You  need  not  pray  any  longer," 
he  explained,  "  because  my  mind  is  already  made 
up.  My  doubts,  such  as  I  had,  are  all  gone. 
Friends,  you've  convinced  me,  and  you  have  even 
put  me  to  shame.  God  forgive  me  for  the  happy 
century  and  a  quarter  I  have  spent  greeting  old 
comrades  and  converts  in  heaven!  God  help  me 
to  accept  manfully  the  challenge  you  have 
brought !  For  by  His  blessing,  friends,  I  am  with 
you  for  such  time  as  you  wish  me  for  a  yokefellow 
in  our  long  pull  on  hell." 


SPEED  AWAY!  381 


CHAPTER  XX 

The  rest  is  a  matter  of  common  history,  and 
may  be  readily  gone  over.  I  need  only  remind 
my  listeners  of  how  our  leader  himself  drew  to- 
gether his  thousands  of  evangelists,  singers,  and 
personal  workers;  of  the  plan  of  alliance  and  of 
strict  comity  with  General  Booth's  Army,  with 
which  our  invasion  of  hell  was  begun;  of  how 
the  whole  infernal  territory  was  mapped  into 
zones  for  successive  campaigns,  and  how  each 
zone  was  districted  and  portioned  out  among  in- 
dividual evangelists  each  with  his  own  corps  of 
workers ;  of  the  great  consecration  meeting  held  in 
heaven  when  we  all  met  one  another  soul  to  soul, 
and  gave  ourselves  to  God  to  be  used  in  a  mission 
to  hell.  These  things  were  not  done  in  a  corner. 
Our  publicity  committee  not  only  had  the  coming 
meetings  thoroughly  and  well  advertised  in  the 
great  zone  of  the  Once  Half-Converted,  where 
our  labors  were  to  begin;  but  they  had  also  en- 
deavored to  send  out  notice  of  our  undertaking 
throughout  that  part  of  heaven  more  immediately 
interested;  so  that  no  one  could  say  that  an  op- 
portunity had  not  been  given  him  to  join  the 
expedition.  Several  million  people  had  definitely 
pledged  themselves  to  pray  often  for  a  revival  in 
hell.  Our  consecration  meeting  was  attended  by 
ten  or  twelve  millions.  Our  Jesus  made  us  glad 
by  His  visible  presence,  equally  close  to  each  of 


$82  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

us.  He  was  there  to  soothe  every  anxiety,  to 
glorify  the  sacrifice  and  sorrow  of  partings,  and 
to  breathe  upon  us  that  we  might  receive  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  love  of  heaven  beamed  upon  us  from 
the  myriad  tender,  prayerful  spirit-faces,  as  we 
sank  slowly  from  view,  more  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand of  us  (besides  the  Salvation  Army)  sing- 
ing— 

"  Onward  Christian  soldiers,  marching  as  to  war, 
With  the  cross  of  Jesus  going  on  before. 
Christ  our  royal  master  leads  against  the  foe. 
Onward  into  battle  see  His  banners  go." 

They  say  even  the  vast  body  politic  of  heaven 
felt  our  departure  as  though  a  drop  of  blood 
had  been  taken  from  its  heart. 

You  have  heard,  no  doubt,  of  the  discourage- 
ments and  discomfitures  of  our  early  campaign. 
At  first  we  seemed  to  find  no  one  in  hell.  We 
could  not  attract  any  one  for  whom  we  sought 
to  a  personal  encounter.  We  preached  to  great 
empty  spaces.  The  same  sinister  silence  and  soli- 
tude with  which  Jeanie  and  I  found  ourselves 
environed  after  Wilkinson  had  gone  inside  the 
lodge  room  now  stretched  around  our  allied  forces 
whichever  way  we  directed  our  invading  flight. 
Even  the  mission  stations  we  found,  where  rescue 
work  was  already  being  prosecuted,  had  been 
suddenly  deserted  at  our  approach  by  all  their 
unconverted  auditors.  Many  of  our  comrades 
became    puzzled    and    discouraged.     They    came 


INITIAL  DISCOURAGEMENTS      383 

about  the  few  of  us  who  had  been  in  hell  before 
with  insistent  questions.  "  Was  this  hell  indeed, 
or  had  we  lost  our  way?  Where  were  the  in- 
habitants? Of  what  use  had  been  our  leave-tak- 
ing and  our  imposing  preparation,  our  finished 
organization,  all  our  committees  and  departments, 
our  heroic  departure,  our  high  hopes  and  lofty 
enthusiasm  —  just  to  find  ourselves  in  this  limit- 
less Sahara  of  empty  glare?  " 

Even  Christman  was  nonplussed  and  bewildered. 
At  last  he  called  those  of  us  aside  who  had  en- 
joyed some  previous  acquaintance  with  the  ways 
of  hell.  "  You  have  brought  us  here,"  he  pro- 
tested, "  and  it  falls  upon  your  shoulders  to  pro- 
vide us  with  a  congregation.  Tell  us  what  this 
means.  Where  are  the  natives  we  came  to  evan- 
gelize, and  how  can  we  get  at  them?  The  uncan- 
niness  of  all  this  is  sapping  the  courage  of  our 
men.  I  have  seen  meetings  begin  slowly;  but 
this  outparallels  every  experience.  You  surely 
must  be  able  to  guess  at  the  situation  better  than 
the  rest  of  us  can.  It  is  all  new  and  strange  to 
us.  Now  I  wish  you  to  get  this  spell  broken 
within  a  week.  I  will  help  you  in  any  way  that 
you  can  suggest ;  but  there  must  not  be  any  more 
time  lost." 

We  were  ourselves  scarcely  less  disturbed  than 
our  leader.  We  puzzled  over  it,  and  prayed  over 
it ;  but  even  Albert  and  Wilkinson  had  no  definite 
explanation  or  suggestion  to  offer.  At  last  Jeanie 
proposed  that  we  should  all  wish  hard  for  the 


384  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

dusky  guide  who  had  first  shown  me  the  way  to 
hell,  and  who  had  come  to  our  assistance  in  ex- 
tremity once  before.  So  we  wished  for  him,  and 
he  came  from  the  great  space  of  a  different  world 
in  hell.  "  Tell  us  what  has  become  of  all  the 
people,"  Father  demanded. 

"  They  are  peeping  at  you  by  millions,"  the 
man  born  in  hell  replied.  "  They  will  not  let 
you  see  them,  and  each  one  is  trying  not  to  let  the 
others  see  that  he  is  interested." 

"  How  singular !  "  I  mused.  "  They  did  not 
treat  me  so  when  J.  first  reached  hell  and  essayed 
open  air  preaching.  They  flocked  around  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  and  showed  all  their  feel- 
ings." 

"  The  mistake  you  made  this  time,"  the  guide 
explained,  "  was  in  sending  your  publicity  com- 
mittee before  to  advertise  your  meetings.  Every 
installed  pastor  in  hell  has  been  denouncing  your 
coming  for  a  month.  They  have  been  warning 
their  congregatios  that  you  are  irresponsible,  in- 
terloping zealots.  They  have  been  spreading 
various  stories  about  your  leader  —  that  he  is 
only  actuated  by  mercenary  motives,  that  he,  or  a 
man  by  his  name,  once  held  a  seat  on  the  Chicago 
Stock  Exchange,  or  at  least  had  some  transactions 
in  stocks  there,  that  he  was  fond  of  fast  horses, 
that  his  sermons  are  hired.  And  they  say  of 
you  each  that  you  never  entirely  succeeded  in 
any  pastorate  you  ever  had.  They  have  created 
such    a    public    sentiment,    that    each    citizen    is 


TO  BREAK  THE  BOYCOTT        385 

ashamed  to  have  the  other  one  know  that  he  is 
even  curious  about  you.  Besides  this,  the  lodges 
have  each  and  all  passed  a  secret  order  putting 
any  member  out  of  standing  who  will  attend, 
countenance,  or  encourage  any  one  of  your  meet- 
ings, or  be  seen  conversing  with  one  of  your 
workers;  but  to  help  any  one  of  you  get  into  a 
lodge  has  been  made  a  crime  against  the  order, 
to  be  punished  with  the  torture." 

"  Then  we  might  as  well  go  back  to  heaven, 
and  wait  awhile,  until  we  can  come  and  take  them 
by  surprise,"  thought  Albert  Junior. 

"  This  would  be  of  no  use,"  the  Creole  declared, 
"  for  upon  your  first  attempt  to  return,  the  same 
ban  and  boycott  would  instantly  be  put  into  force 
again." 

"  What  can  we  do  ?  "  exclaimed  Joy  in  bewil- 
derment. 

"  There  is  just  one  thing  to  do,"  advised  our 
native  friend.  "  Your  whole  evangelistic  activ- 
ity must  be  concentrated  upon  making  one  con- 
vert. It  is  the  first  conversion  which  brings  the 
break  in  a  revival." 

"  But  how  can  we  concentrate  on  anybody," 
Joy  asked,  "  when  there  absolutely  isn't  anybody 
in  sight  to  concentrate  on?  " 

"  Oh  that  is  easy,"  Jeanie  declared.  "  It  will 
be  something  like  the  time  Nat  and  I  concentrated 
on  Mr.  McGammon.  We  simply  select  our  man 
and  all  pray  for  him,  until  he  has  to  come  out." 

"  If  you  could  only  see  them,"  the  dark  brother 


386  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

declared ;  "  the  nearest  observers  around  your  host 
are  those  who  have  been  drawn  by  the  prayers 
of  those  who  love  them  best.  Only,  these  prayers 
have  been  sent  out  scatteringly,  each  to  find  its 
own  chosen  object.  What  you  need  now  is  to  se- 
lect one  of  these,  acquaint  the  remainder  of  your 
whole  evangelistic  force  with  all  you  know  of 
him  or  of  her,  and  set  them,  for  the  time  being, 
all  to  praying  just  for  that  one;  until  you  get 
hold  of  him  and  save  him." 

"  The  only  remaining  question  then  is,  which?  " 
Father  concluded. 

"  I  would  take  the  one  who  came  nearest  to 
being  saved  the  last  time  you  were  here,"  our 
friend  advised  again. 

I  asked  Father  if  he  could  think  of  any  one  in 
particular  in  or  about  his  pastorate  at  Jeroboam's 
Holl  who  seemed  nearest  to  being  saved;  but  he 
failed  to  remember  a  single  one  of  his  old  parish- 
ioners who  had  manifested  any  distinct  trace  of 
a  self -consciousness  that  he  or  she  came  under  the 
category  of  those  who  need  salvation.  "  During 
the  final  moments  of  my  condemnation  by  the 
presbytery,"  he  acknowledged,  "  and  just  at  the 
moment  of  my  quitting  their  assembled  presence, 
there  seemed  to  be  an  undefined  revulsion  of  wist- 
fulness  and  an  unexpected  regret  over  my  de- 
parture on  the  part  of  a  large  number,  as  though 
they  would  fain  have  heard  more  of  my  matter; 
but  there  was  no  one  of  them  in  particular  whom 


WHERE  TWO  AGREE  387 

I  can  single  out  in  memory  as  having  shown  him- 
self especially  under  gracious  influence." 

"  How  about  Mr.  Willoughby  ?  "  Jeanie  asked, 
turning  to  me. 

I  acknowledged  that  his  case  had  just  occurred 
to  my  mind  as  perhaps  the  least  impossibly  hope- 
less of  all  the  lodge  members  I  had  rubbed  against. 

"  No  one  could  ever  confidently  declare  at  any 
moment  what  Willoughby  might  really  be  think- 
ing back  of  his  beak,"  I  said ;  "  but  his  actions 
at  least  showed  some  interest  in  personal  salva- 
tion." 

Of  course  Mrs.  Willoughby  and  the  daugher, 
being  among  our  evangelistic  force,  were  with  us 
in  a  moment  pleading  strongly  that  he  might  be 
the  chosen  object  of  our  prayers,  and,  to  appease 
their  concern,  I  took  our  dusky  counselor  to 
Christman.  When  the  evangelist  had  heard  all 
he  had  to  advise,  and  all  I  could  say  definitely  for 
Willoughby,  he  said  to  the  hell-born  brother, 
"  you  stay  with  us  and  be  our  Hobab.  The 
force  is  not  complete  for  hell,  without  you." 
Then  he  issued  a  general  order.  "  Call  in  all 
scouts  and  specialists,"  it  ran.  "  Come  together 
in  close  formation,  and  pray  for  nothing  else  but 
the  conversion  of  one  James  Willoughby,  Free 
Mason,  ex-magistrate,  and  church  trustee." 

Within  the  stipulated  week  we  began  to  feel 
the  pull.  There  was  no  sudden  jerk;  but  very 
gradually  from  an  almost  imperceptible  begin- 


A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

ning,  we  realized  that  our  prayer  had  caught 
something.  To  my  intense  surprise,  the  strain 
increased  seemingly  far  out  of  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  soul  we  were  pulling  upon.  Our  whole 
host  began  to  feel  it,  and  sturdy  souls  bent  with 
reassured  purpose  to  the  rope  of  prayer.  Wilkin- 
son, Uncle  Linas,  Jeanie  and  I  went  softly  about 
among  them,  whispering  in  each  soul's  ear  all  we 
knew  about  the  object  of  our  united  prayers. 
The  man's  wife  and  daughter  also  tried  to  tell 
each  one  something ;  to  aid  in  giving  prayer  more 
definite  shape ;  but  could  say  little  for  weeping  in 
their  joy  and  wonder. 

"  Is  this  a  giant  we  are  drawing  to  Christ  ?  " 
Christman  asked  us  quietly.  We  replied  that  if 
such  were  the  case,  our  friend  must  have  grown 
prodigiously  since  we  parted.  "  Willoughby  is 
one  of  the  closest,  snuggest,  tightest  little  souls," 
I  explained,  "  and  he  has  a  smooth  hard  shell  all 
over  him,  shaped  to  a  beak  which  rarely  ever  opens 
more  than  half  an  inch.  Unless  he  has  strangely 
changed,  there  is  little  or  nothing  about  him  for 
prayer  to  catch  hold  of,  except,  perhaps,  the  de- 
votion he  professes  to  his  wife  and  daughter." 

The  next  time  we  met  him  our  leader  remarked, 
"  This  pull  is  more  than  the  pull  of  one  soul. 
The  devil  himself  could  hardly  pull  harder  than 
this." 

"  I  fear  me,"  Uncle  Linas  suggested,  "  that 
all  of  old  Mystery  Lodge  has  clutched  upon 
Squire  Willoughby's  soul,  to  hold  it  back." 


GOLD  CHAINS  OF  PRAYER        389 

"  More  likely  it  is  the  whole  pseudo-Masonic 
order,"  Uncle  Adolphus  thought. 

"  Well  all  I've  got  to  say,"  declared  Wilkin- 
son, "  is  that  if  the  Free  Masons  are  pulling 
against  you,  it'll  take  more  pull  than  you've  got 
here  to  do  anything." 

"  Look  here,  my  man,"  Christman  said  almost 
sharply,  "  Don't  you  know  that  when  one  believer 
prays,  he  hitches  omnipotence  to  his  object,  or  to 
his  obstacle  ?  " 

"  I  believe  something  is  going  to  give  way 
soon,"  Jeanie  declared  encouragingly.  "  Haven't 
you  noticed  that  the  pull  is  getting  more  jerky 
and  wavy  than  it  was  ?  There  must  be  some  com- 
motion over  there  at  the  other  side." 

General  Booth  came  back  with  his  army  from 
a  fruitless  expedition  in  search  of  the  slums  of 
hell,  and  finding  something  actually  doing  with 
us,  ordered  the  whole  army  to  take  hold  in  prayer 
and  help  pull. 

"  Everything  seemed  to  have  been  covered  up 
or  cleared  out  of  the  way,"  he  reported  somewhat 
dejectedly.  "The  only  discovery  we  made  — 
and  that  by  an  oversight  of  the  infernal  authori- 
ties maybe, —  was  a  great  pit  full  of  dead  or  half 
dead  souls  still  twitching  and  quivering  as  if 
galvanized.  If  we  find  we  cannot  locate  more 
encouragingly ;  we  will  begin  work  on  them ;  to 
see  if  they  will  not,  some  of  them,  be  resuscitated 
by  the  quickening  power  of  Christ." 

"  Oh  please  take  me  with  you !  "     It  was  the 


390  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

plea  of  little  Sadie  Echols,  instantly  close  by  our 
side. 

It  seemed  now  as  though  all  hell  were  pulling 
against  our  prayers.  Word  was  sent  back  to  our 
supporters  in  heaven  to  pray  for  the  one  definite 
need  of  this  soul's  salvation.  The  current  now 
on  was  terrific.  There  were  not  amperes  enough 
upon  the  dial  to  measure  it.  We  began  to  fear 
that  poor  Willoughby  might  be  unbeaked  and 
torn  in  two.  "  When  he  does  eventually  come," 
Father  said  in  my  soul's  ear,  "  do  you  know  of 
what  it  will  remind  me?  It  will  be  like  our 
Seventh  Street  Branch  of  the  Central  Union  Mis- 
sion long  ago.  When  a  poor  drunken,  unsaved 
fellow  did  perchance  wander  into  one  of  our 
meetings ;  you  know  he  by  no  means  went  out  un- 
converted. We  were  hungry  for  lost  souls  to 
save,  and  before  our  meeting  came  to  its  conclu- 
sion half  of  us  would  be  about  him  in  prayer." 

So  it  proved  in  this  case.  When  the  strain 
opposed  to  us  began  to  give  way,  and  Willough- 
by, open-mouthed,  unmasked,  crying  to  God  for 
mercy,  was  drawn  to  us,  with  a  hundred  million 
black  hands  clutching  at  him  still,  there  was  short 
work  in  getting  him  to  the  very  center  of  our 
phalanx,  where,  with  weeping  wife  and  daughter 
and  with  old  pals  and  neighbors  praying  softly 
as  we  patted  him,  James  Willoughby  found  par- 
don and  acceptance  with  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  in  an  hour  his  tight  soul  opened 
out  to  the  sunshine  of  love  like  the  bud  on  a  bal- 


COSTLY  VICTORY  391 

som  bough.  A  shout  went  up  to  heaven  that  one 
sinner  was  repenting. 

"  Out  and  catch  them ! "  was  the  cry  raised 
meanwhile  at  our  periphery.  "  Pray  for  whom 
you  will,"  Christman  counseled.  "  Preach  to 
whom  you  can."  It  was  not  long  before  evangel- 
ists and  personal  workers  had  scattered  out  over 
a  great  part  of  hell  following  glimpses  of  retreat- 
ing opponents,  beckoning  to  shifting,  changing, 
melting  clouds  of  possible  auditors. 

But  the  immediate  effect  of  Willoughby's  con- 
version did  not  tell  for  victory  as  we  had  hoped. 
It  seemed  at  first  to  lead  to  a  series  of  misfortunes 
which  all  but  wrecked  our  enterprise.  To  use 
again  a  military  phrase,  the  enemy's  position  was 
only  partially  uncovered.  The  swarm  of  un- 
counted damned  souls  around  us  revealed  its 
presence  only  in  part,  by  the  constant  impact  of 
soul  bodies  whose  weight  could  be  felt ;  but  whose 
form  could  not  be  seen:  by  calls  which  drew  us 
here  and  there  only  to  find  emptiness,  or  else  to  be 
rubbed  upon  singly  by  a  vastly  disproportioned 
mass.  Those  who  were  drawn  far  away  from 
their  comrades  by  their  interest  in  some  dear  lost 
soul,  or  by  their  eagerness  to  find  an  audience  for 
the  message  of  salvation,  began  sending  back 
signals  of  distress;  and  rescuing  parties  had  to 
be  dispatched  here  and  there  in  anxiety  and  haste. 
One  of  our  number,  Chaplain  Jones,  who  had 
helped  us  in  our  first  raid  on  Galpin's  so  called, 
'  canteens '  at  the  camp,  had  the  misfortune  to 


392  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

lose  his  temper,  and  rushed  away  after  a  taunting 
fiend,  very  much  after  the  manner  in  which,  on 
that  memorable  day,  he  went  after  one  of  the  boys 
of  his  regiment  who  fled  with  a  bottle  of  beer  from 
regimental  camp  to  camp. 

Our  leader  kept  his  nerve  splendidly,  attending 
to  emergencies  and  reverses  with  tireless  pertinac- 
ity. But  after  some  weeks  he  sent  for  Father 
and  me  to  come  into  headquarters.  We  found 
General  Booth  there  in  consultation  with  him, 
and  with  our  dusky  guide. 

"  The  revival  is  not  coming  promptly ;  as  re- 
vivals must,  if  they  come  at  all,"  our  captain  ex- 
plained. 

"  It  must  seem  like  terrible  work  to  you  for  a 
first  experience,"  I  admitted. 

"  It  is  not  the  terrible  work  that  we  mind,"  the 
General  declared ;  "  we  came  here  for  terrible 
work,  we  are  spoiling  for  it,  we  glory  in  it.  But 
it  is  the  results  that  we  are  somehow  missing." 

"  Never  despair,  dear  General,"  Father  coun- 
seled. "  Our  fishing  for  men  is  not  in  vain. 
Have  we  not  already  caught  one?  " 

"  But  that  seems  rather  a  little  one,"  Christman 
objected.  "  You  cannot  figure  up  a  revival  on 
the  strength  of  one  convert.  Our  Hobab  here 
promised  us  greater  results ;  if  we  could  but  con- 
centrate and  win  one. 

"  I  did  not  have  the  selecting  of  that  one,"  the 
guide  protested. 


TRY  SOMETHING  HARDER       393 

"  You  left  the  selection  with  the  Presters  here," 
Christman  reminded  him. 

"  Yes  I  know,  and  I  advised  them  to  select  the 
one  they  had  formerly  come  nearest  to  convert- 
ing," our  infernal  native  admitted.  "  There 
must  have  been  a  providence  in  it;  but  I  hardly 
anticipated  that  they  would  settle  upon  one  who 
would  afford  so  slight  an  object  lesson  and 
demonstration  of  regenerating  power,  or  one  who 
would  apparently  pull  so  feebly  upon  the  others 
back  of  him.  I  begin  to  feel  that  I  have  erred 
in  judgement.  I  should  have  counseled  you  to 
concentrate,  and  focus  upon  the  most  hardened 
soul  you  had  found  in  hell,  the  one  who  seemed 
most  hopeless  as  an  object  of  evangelistic  en- 
deavor, the  one  whose  activities  for  evil  are  having 
the  widest  scope,  and  whose  moral  condition  and 
future  outlook  gives  you  most  confidence  in  re- 
garding him  as  entirely  reprobate.  I  feel  now 
that  I  am  to  blame  for  encouraging  you  to 
minimize  the  converting  grace  of  God.  I  would 
advise  you  now  to  combine  and  ask  for  the  great- 
est miracle  of  grace  you  can  think  of,  in  the 
regeneration  of  some  one  definite  individual  soul." 

"  Shall  we  try  the  Presters  again  on  the  selec- 
tion ?  "  Doctor  Christman  demanded. 

"  I  would,  certainly,"  replied  our  adviser. 
"  Otherwise  they  might  feel  that  we  had  lost  con- 
fidence in  them  over  the  meagre  outcome  of  their 
former  choice." 


394  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Perhaps  the  most  hopeless  apparent  reprobate 
I  discovered,"  Father  said  when  our  leader  ap- 
pealed to  him,  "  was  in  the  person  of  a  Presby- 
terian elder  named  James  Rorer." 

"  I  decline  to  believe  it,"  Christman  declared 
promptly.  "  No  Presbyterian  elder  shall  be  thus 
held  up  as  the  supreme  reprobate  of  hell  during 
my  campaign." 

"  My  son  also  has  had  some  dealings  with  him, 
even  in  both  worlds  "  Father  insisted,  "  and  can 
doubtless  confirm  my  testimony  with  regard  to 
him." 

"  No  Father,"  I  said ;  "  for  obduracy  Rorer 
might  possibly  take  the  prize ;  but  for  the  activi- 
ties of  widest  influence  for  evil  I  am  thinking  of  a 
choice  between  three  others."     Then  I  hesitated. 

"  Tell  us  about  them,"  commanded  General 
Booth :  "  then  we  can  intelligently  help  your 
selection." 

"  First  I  must  ask,  would  you  limit  the  selec- 
tion to  those  of  human  race  ?  "  was  my  appeal. 

"  I  believe  he  would  have  us  pray  for  Satan 
himself!"  Christman  exclaimed.  "Decidedly 
we  must  not !  This  would  be  a  rash  intrusion  into 
the  inner-most  secrets  of  the  Godhead." 

"  If  you  would  extend  the  term,  '  human '  to 
cover  beings  of  similar  origin,  perhaps  this  would 
meet  young  Prester's  thought,"  gently  interposed 
our  dusky  guide.  "  I  regard  myself  as  human ; 
though  born  in  hell  of  extraction  partly  terres- 
trial, partly  Martian.     He  of  whom  our  brother 


THE  NEXT  ONE  TO  SATAN       395 

is  thinking  may  be  of  lineage  equally  unlikely  as 
a  trophy  of  redeeming  grace." 

"  It  is  not  a  he,  but  a  she,"  I  explained ;  "  only 
it  is  a  soul  grown  almost  past  human  measure- 
ments. The  other  two  with  whom  I  came  into 
confidential  relations,  and  between  whom  and  the 
Satana  I  would  hesitate  to  accord  the  preeminence 
in  sin,  were  Satan  himself,  and  an  ex-rumseller 
now  head  of  the  so-called  Masonic  order  of  hell." 

"  Let  us  try  the  woman,"  Christman  decided  at 
once.  "  Time  is  pressing.  The  sex  also  is  more 
capable  of  sudden  and  remarkable  revulsions  of 
impulse." 

So  the  order  went  out :  "  Concentrate  again, 
and  pray  only  for  the  conversion  of  a  certain 
Mrs.  Guinness,  murderess  by  trade,  and  present 
chief  consort  of  Satan." 

This  time  it  was  decided  not  to  begin  gradually, 
and  increase  our  force  of  intercession  as  recruits 
might  come  in ;  but  to  notify  all  whose  help  had 
been  enlisted  before,  both  in  hell  and  in  heaven, 
and  agree,  at  a  given  signal,  all  to  begin  praying 
at  once.  So  the  word  was  passed  quite  quietly, 
and  earnest  preparation  of  mind  was  enjoyed 
upon  all  the  millions  of  petitioners  along  lines  of 
meditation  which  tend  to  establish  the  conviction 
of  God's  willingness  to  answer  the  request  of  most 
unlikely  boldness,  for  the  glory  of  His  name. 
At  last  the  signal  was  given,  and  some  ten  million 
souls  bowed  low  before  God  in  concerted  prayer 
for  the  salvation  of  one  woman's  wicked  soul. 


396  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

To  our  astonishment,  the  answer  was  immediate. 
Almost  at  a  bound  the  she-devil  was  among  us, 
in  all  the  greatness  of  her  semi-infinite  psychical 
development,  in  all  the  sobbing  contrition  of  a 
woman's  heart,  broken  in  conviction  of  sin.  "  It 
is  so  wonderful  that  you  should  care  to  ask  to  have 
me  saved ! "  she  cried.  "  And  oh !  I  have  been 
so  miserable !  I  have  not  had  one  moment's  peace, 
since  Prester  prayed  for  me  as  I  was  dragging 
him  down.     Nobody  ever  prayed  for  me  before." 

Hell  closed  in  thick  about  us  now.  The  secrets 
of  all  hearts  stood  revealed.  Satanic  rage,  open- 
mouthed  astonishment,  contagious  penitence,  soul- 
curdling  confession;  fierce  resistance  to  convic- 
tion, desperate  opposition,  trembling  terror  before 
God  swirled  and  quivered,  and  leaped  into  flame 
around  us.  Recognitions  instant  and  startling 
flashed  from  soul  to  soul.  Sin  and  shame  and 
horror  bared  themselves  to  the  day.  Pity  and 
prayer  met  aching  loneliness  and  moral  desolation. 
God  and  Satan,  heaven  and  hell  wrestled  in  the 
open  for  the  prize  of  souls. 

Heaven  still  wonders  over  the  revival  which 
followed.  "  Keep  close  together,"  was  our  human 
leader's  order,  "  and  take  individual  cases  only 
as  they  come  to  us."  The  simultaneous  idea  was 
laid  aside  for  the  time  being,  and  the  work  was 
done  on  the  old  mass-meeting  plan.  Christman 
preached  even  as  we  had  never  heard  him  preach 
before.  Moody  also  came  and  stood  in  the  wide 
open  gate  of  God's  mercy,  crying  out  to  souls  to 


WALES  OUTDONE  397 

turn  and  live.  Jonathan  Edwards  came  and 
thundered  out  his  warnings  of  worse  to  befall  sin- 
ners in  the  hands  of  an  angry  God.  The  rest 
of  us  worked  in  an  inquiry  meeting  continually 
thronged  with  seekers,  crying,  "  Is  there  still  hope 
for  me?  " 

Not  only  men  but  demons:  spirits  who  flocked 
to  our  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  opposition ;  to 
thwart  redemption's  power  with  sneer,  or  threat, 
with  counter  attraction  of  glittering  vice,  or  with 
sheer  overpowering  din  of  rage  and  ridicule ;  were 
themselves,  one  and  another  of  them,  caught  by 
this  mighty  thrill  and  clasp  of  the  hitherto  un- 
dreamed-of possibility  of  pardon,  and  fallen 
angels,  as  well  as  devils  once  of  human  shape  were 
found  suddenly  weeping  for  sin.  Yells  of  de- 
fiance turned  to  groans  of  contrition,  prayers  for 
mercy,  hallelujahs  of  conscious  acceptance  with 
God. 

Converts  went  out  to  find  others.  There  could 
have  been  no  restraining  them,  if  we  had  tried. 
With  a  reason  for  the  new  hope  that  was  in  them 
as  strong  and  calm  as  the  unchanging  attributes 
of  God,  yet  as  novel  to  their  minds  as  the  first  see- 
ing of  one  born  blind;  there  came  to  each  a 
revulsion  of  feeling  dynamic  with  the  pent  up 
power  of  ages  of  misery  turned  to  overwhelming 
joy,  and  the  first  longinng  of  each  was  for  some 
one  other  chum  of  perdition  to  experience  the  same 
mighty  change.  Thus  the  revival  swept  out  be- 
yond all  human  directing  grasp,  the  results  of  it 


398  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

overwhelmed  its  organization,  its  power  radiated 
beyond  its  machinery,  parallel  currents  vied  with 
its  wires. 

Other  evangelistic  centers  began  to  be  estab- 
lished, some  of  them  by  direction,  others  God 
alone  knew  how.  As  in  a  great  conflagration 
sparks  drop  and  kindle  upon  distant  roofs,  the 
flame  of  revival  sprang  up  continually  in  the  most 
unlikely  places.  Even  Jeroboam's  Holl  experi- 
enced two  remarkable  conversions  of  church  mem- 
bers, with  one,  near  by,  still  more  remarkable,  even 
the  conversion  of  a  minister  of  their  Presbytery. 
They  sent  in  a  request  for  Father  to  come  back 
to  them  as  their  own  special  evangelist.  He  had 
to  labor,  in  his  inimitably  patient  way  against 
the  frosty  influence  of  criticism  without  end 
directed  at  revivals  in  general  and  this  one  in  par- 
ticular; yet  his  efforts  bore  fruit  for  God,  even 
in  the  conversion  of  such  hopelessly  theological 
minds  as  those  of  elder  McCracken  and  Doctor 
Raxton. 

Many  still  stood  out  unconvinced  and  gospel 
hardened.  The  greatest  results,  as  has  so  often 
happened,  were  achieved  in  the  lower  levels  of  hell. 
Here  newly  converted  hellians  sometimes  almost 
outrivaled  heaven's  own  missionaries  as  preachers 
of  salvation.  Objects  of  the  bitterest  persecu- 
tion, the  storm  which  swirled  around  each  of  them 
gave  him  or  her  an  opportunity  to  direct  the 
arrows  of  conviction  between  the  armor  joints 
of  souls  too  angry  to  be  on  their  guard.     Mrs. 


A  REVIVAL  YEAR  399 

Guiness,  no  longer  Mrs.  Satan,  now  the  outstand- 
ing target  for  all  her  former  consort's  malevolence 
and  malice,  sanctified  in  her  humility  and  sorrow, 
lovely  in  the  tingling  of  an  eternal  blush,  was 
working  almost  everywhere  at  once  in  the  spirit 
of  a  Nellie  Conroy,  with  skill  and  effectiveness  of 
the  archtemptress  become  a  winner  of  souls.  But 
her  tenderest  endeavors  were  exerted,  along  with 
those  of  the  Salvation  Army  in  the  work  of  rescue 
and  recuscitation  upon  the  brink  of  the  lowest  pit 
of  hell.  Little  Sadie  Echols  was  with  them  there, 
and  almost  their  first  achievement  was  the  quicken- 
ing of  Hatchet,  so  long  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins. 

Even  Mystery  Lodge  was  visited.  Already 
somewhat  shaken  by  the  extraction  of  Willough- 
by,  it  experienced  a  far  greater  shock  in  the 
sudden  and  unexplained  conversion  of  Elder 
Smiley.  He  was  stricken  speechless  with  contri- 
tion, and  began  to  shake  with  a  dumb  chill  of 
dread  over  what  hell  might  still  have  in  store  for 
him.  The  news  of  this  most  marvelous  change 
of  all  reached  the  souls  of  Mystery's  former 
chaplain's  Godson  and  Galpin,  and  with  Christ- 
man's  consent,  and  the  help  of  Uncle  Adolphus, 
they  gathered  a  strong  company  of  ex-Masons 
together  from  our  evangelistic  force,  of  whom 
quite  a  number,  like  Parson  Weems  (now  grown 
strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His 
might)  had  been  ministers  of  the  gospel  on  earth; 
and  together  they  forced  a  prayerful  entrance 


400  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

into   the   infernal  free-masonry,   in   spite   of   all 
McGammon's  wizzardrj  of  resistance. 

A  revival  in  hell!  How  utterly  vain  are  even 
wordless  symbols  of  thought  to  picture  forth 
the  melodrama  of  its  groans  and  halelujahs,  its 
age-long  lethargy  of  hopelessness  waking  to  sud- 
den life  and  joy!  Such  a  revival  earth  never 
saw;  yet  the  tremor  of  its  pulsations  seemed  to 
be  felt  even  in  mortal  lives.  It  was  a  time  of  un- 
usual manifestation  of  the  power  of  God  quicken- 
ing dependent  souls.  This  was  the  Year  of  Hun- 
ger on  earth,  when  the  Farmer's  Trust  met  its 
Waterloo,  and  when  the  last  survival  of  anarchism 
and  of  atheistic  humanism  struggled  viciously  in 
its  death-throe;  while  the  ore  of  humanity  went 
through  God's  hottest  furnace,  to  come  out  pure 
gold.  I  should  like  so  much  to  tell  you  a  thous- 
andth part  of  the  wonderful  personal  incidents 
of  our  revival,  of  how  Alton  Chartier  found  his 
way  into  our  inquiry  meeting,  and  of  how  Jeanie 
won  him  to  Christ;  also  of  Love  joy's  success  in 
bringing  in  Lou  Sawyer  and  many  another  poor 
suicide,  of  how  Maggie  Rorer  and  her  mother 
went  after  the  elder  from  one  of  hell's  hiding 
places  to  another  until  they  found  him,  of  how 
they  loved  him  until  he  could  hate  no  longer,  and 
so  brought  him  into  the  kingdom.  I  cannot  tell 
you  how  glad  I  would  be  to  talk  over  a  great 
many  of  these  details  with  you  sometime  when  we 
meet  in  heaven,  and  to  put  each  of  you,  gentle 
listeners,  upon  the  track  of  some  one  dear  to  you 


THE  FAR  GLANCE  AHEAD   401 

whom  you  may  help  Jesus  save  out  of  hell;  some- 
one for  whose  salvation  you  know  now  that  you 
did  not  wrestle  as  you  might  have  done  on  earth, 
and  for  whom,  to  get  the  pain  of  an  endless  regret 
out  of  your  mind,  you  might  gladly  be  willing 
to  make  a  little  journey  in  hell. 

So  it  came  about,  toward  the  close  of  this 
memorable  year,  that  some  of  us  who  had  come  up 
to  heaven  with  a  company  of  converts,  among 
whom  were  the  lady  hierarch  of  Christian  Science, 
and  elders  Rorer  and  McCracken,  when  we  were 
about  to  descend  again  amid  hell's  dear  scenes  of 
revival  power,  met  a  group  of  philosophers  and 
theologians  gazing  out  from  the  edge  of  heaven 
in  general  survey  of  the  stirring  events  occuring 
on  earth,  in  hell,  and  everywhere.  There  were 
Joseph  Addison  Alexander,  Doctor  Hitchcock, 
Joseph  Cook,  Socrates,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
Mozoomdar;  together  with  Professor  Noah  K. 
and  the  apostle  John,  and  other  men  distinctly 
called  of  God  to  the  mission  of  high  thought. 
Father  and  I,  Brother  Strong  and  Truth  Custiss, 
Mother,  Jeanie,  Joy  and  her  two  Alberts,  together 
with  some  other  plain  workers  for  God,  stopped 
awhile  to  hear  these  men  think. 

"  Is  the  consummation  at  hand?  "  Alexander 
asked,  "  Are  we  nearing  the  restitution  of  all 
things,  the  great  adoption,  to  wit  the  complete 
redemption,  for  which  the  whole  creation  has  been 
groaning  and  travailing  in  pain  together  until 
now?" 


402  A  MISSION  TO  HELL 

"  Nay,"  replied  he  who  was  in  the  spirit  on  the 
Lord's  Day  on  Patmos,  "  there  are  ages  of  conflict 
yet  to  come.  The  great  day  of  Judgment,  and 
the  many  days  of  tears  and  triumph  are  yet  to 
come.  Christ  must  descend  and  reign  on  earth, 
in  every  world,  in  hell ;  even  He  whose  right  it  is ; 
The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  must  still  say, '  Come ! '  " 

Jeanie  drew  a  little  closer  to  my  side  and  whisp- 
ered, "  Then  there  are  still  to  be  ages  in  which  to 
believe  to  see  even  poor  Mister  McGammon  and 
the  Devil  saved." 

But  Father  was  listening  to  something  from  far 
away.  His  soul's  ear  had  caught  the  vibration  of 
a  song.  "  Listen ! "  he  said,  and  every  soul 
about  us  grew  still.  It  was  beginning,  oh  so 
softly !  all  over  hell  at  once.  The  discords  of  that 
dreadful  place  were  inaudible  by  reason  of  moral 
distance ;  but  this  harmony  in  song  came  up  to  us 
with  increasing  distinctness.  It  was  the  har- 
mony of  a  sob  of  pity  mingling  with  a  sob 
of  joy.  It  was  the  harmony  of  love  with 
penitence.  It  was  the  sweetest  refrain  to  which 
our  souls  had  ever  listened.  It  swelled  up 
vibrant  and  clear;  then  lingered  away  into 
a  whisper.  But  an  antiphonal  strain  came 
now  from  the  heaven  behind  us,  thrilling  the  uni- 
verse with  hope.  We  too  joined  in  the  chorus 
and  even  the  hearts  of  living  men  on  earth  vibrated 
unconsciously  in  harmony  with  it,  while  new-born 
souls  coming  up  from  hell,  as  well  as  missionary 
spirits  going  thither,  let  their  voices  blend  with 


THE  UNENDING  SONG  403 

ours  in  rich  symphonal  accord.  Stronger  and 
vaster  grew  the  chorus,  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters,  as  the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings,  the 
voice  of  a  great  multitude  which  no  man  could 
number.  Almost  it  semed  that  we  could  hear  each 
new  soul's  voice  chiming  in ;  until  it  seemed  sure 
that  every  creature  would  yet  take  up  the  anthem 
of  blessing,  and  honour,  and  glory  and  power 
unto  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  and  unto 
the  Lamb,  heaven's  lamb  as  it  had  been  slain. 
Our  hearing  extended  to  futurity.  We  caught 
the  coming  notes  of  an  anthem  rolling  onward 
through  ages  that  are  to  be.  We  heard  voices 
yet  unborn  bringing  fresh  harmonies,  sounding 
untried  chords.  Life  after  life  quivered  out  of 
the  minor  key  into  the  rich  major  of  full  content. 
It  seemed  that  not  one  soul  would  be  left  sullenly 
dumb,  or  bitterly  discordant;  but  as  we  leant  to 
catch  the  far  away  crescendo,  the  chorus  became 
complete  in  every  part,  swelling  up  from  God's 
vast  universe  in  the  new  song  of  praise  to  Him 
who  alone  is  worthy  to  take  the  book  of  destiny 
and  to  open  the  seals  the  seals  thereof;  to  Him 
who  was  slain,  and  who  has  redeemed  us  to  God 
out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue,  and  people  and 
nation,  out  of  every  planet  and  prison  house  of 
perishing  souls;  just  to  our  own  crucified  Jesus, 
the  same  world-sufficient  Saviour,  yesterday,  to- 
day, and  forever. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 
CHRISTLIKE  CHRISTIANITY, 

A  BROCHURE    AND  A    PRACTICAL   SUGGESTION 

From  the  Harrisburg  Evangelical] 

Christlike  Christianity,  is  a  neatly  printed 
booklet  of  32  pages,  whose  burden  is  an  eloquent, 
persuasive  plea  for  that  fellowship  and  oneness  in 
love  which  is  the  Christian  ideal  for  the  church  of 
Christ.  The  author  does  more  than  hold  up  the 
beautiful  ideal  and  press  the  plea  for  its  realiza- 
tion. He  aims  to  be  practical  and  to  extend  a 
hand  of  help  to  all  who  are  of  like  mind  in  real  de- 
sire for  this  union  in  the  bond  of  peace.  He  ac- 
cordingly proposes  a  simple,  modest  plan  for  a  next 
step  in  this  direction,  which,  we  doubt  not,  will 
commend  itself  to  many  devout  hearts. 

From  the  Pittsburgh  Banner'] 

This  book  contains  eight  short  chapters,  through 
which  runs  an  earnest  plea  for  spiritual  Christianity 
and  especially  for  Christian  unity.  The  author 
eloquently  pleads  for  Christian  brotherhood.  He 
proposes  a  plan  for  united  prayer  and  work  among 
Christians  of  different  denominations  that  would 
doubtless  prove  serviceable  in  many  places. 

Price,  10  cents,  postpaid. 

Sherman,  French  &  Company, 
6  Beacon  Street,  Boston. 


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